Just tried duplicator twice. Build failed both times this is getting REALLY frustrating. Days going by. Hours spent trying to fix this. 

I just discovered - by removing all words from WP moderation list fixed the issue. However, the words that I am using in the comment are NOT in the list. The comments I tested where super simple like
"one more time @test2"
"Trying now @test2" 
so basically, anytime the word the user is mentioned it goes into approval. 
The @ symbol is not in the spam words list. 

added words back into mod list. 
Tried commenting to @otherusernames - all went to moderation. 
Commented without @username, did not go into moderation.

You as developers should know it is totally unfair, unsafe, unsecure to ask me to send you a back up of my entire website. I'd be breaking all sorts of GDPR rules. You must have another way to test this. I gave you a clone of the site - please review the problem there. 

removed all but one word from list - comments with @ no longer moderated. 
THen
replaced mod word list with this list. Does not include @ or test. Comment "@test2 hello again." was forced into moderation. 

removed any word that contains "test" within it from the list provided in last comment here. Comment still goes into mod

commented with only @ symbol. Comment did not go into mod. 

commented with only @inmygarage - comment went into mod. 
So I've pretty much isolated it to any comment with @username goes into mod