As someone with far more experience than Esses, I'd love to get the transcripts on what he was actually saying in those conversations. We've only heard from his perspective and I strongly suspect (particularly given his subsequent anti-trans activism) he was doing a lot more than he said he was..and badly.
I agree, in that a tribunal is the place where the public will find out exactly what the facts are. That's why I've chipped in to see it go to court. I have chipped in for a number of law suits where someone has lost work, been put through disciplinary processes etc for saying things that were deemed transphobic because I want to find out exactly where that line is. I in fact hope that there is something beyond the pale that actually warrants the treatment in each case, otherwise people are being treated terribly by employers & regulators for acting reasonably. So far, though sometimes the person has said things I wouldn't personally, the courts have always found that the person hadn't crossed a line & has in fact been treated unfairly. The most recent was the social worker whose regulator dropped the case against her. The facts established showed she had shared mostly newspaper articles & had used no unacceptable language. So I was left with the realisation that she had been treated appallingly for doing what everyone in a democracy should defend the right to do.
So I agree the facts are not known and its v possible there is more to it. The details will be laid bare. I rather suspect there will be less to it rather than more, but we'll see.