I courted the idea of moderating even just a week ago. That's even after decades of attempted/failed moderation.
After learning much more about alcohol and its effects and what it had done to my life over the years I realised it would be harder than I thought.
In effect I am "learning to hate" alcohol. By doing that moderation becomes a bit of a misnomer. I am realising it has no positive outcomes for me ever, either in the short or long term.
There are also physiological effects of drinking that take along time to recover from which would make moderation a bit of a waste of time if you want to recover:
"PAWS symptoms reach a peak from three to six months after we get clean. Any use of drugs or alcohol, even in small quantities or for a short time, will effectively eliminate any improvement gained over that time, as it will keep the brain from healing." Why We Don’t Get Better Immediately: Post-acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS) | What…Me Sober?
Perhaps the reason is this: If one could moderate he would have already. One would not need here because he would have been happily putting drinks down or refusing them for all the years he was drinking. Instead he couldn't, he drank and drank and drank. He made a fool of himself, he spent countless dollars, he destroyed relationships, he lost jobs (the list goes on)....