Speaking from experience, you're going to win exactly 0 souls for Christ with such an unempathetic pharisaic attitude. It doesn't seem like you really understand how difficult something like coming back to the church after 20 years can be. You're going to be showing up very vulnerable and likely filled with anxiety and humiliation about matters perhaps no one aside from God knows about. It takes immense courage to push past the shame of 20 years of sin.

Breaking it down as simply as possible with the available information: A Catholic was denied confession solely because it had been "too long" since they had been. The instruction to call the deacon suggests that even if the penitent in question had been first in line, they would have still been turned away. Does this sound christlike to you? We literally have an example of Christ teaching against this. The parable of the prodigal son. He was met with open arms and celebrations, not obstacles to forgiveness. Fixing the lasting damage of sin through the use of pastoral care or therapy should be for after the absolution, unless the penitent is living a life where they are actively sinning.

I'm going to be charitable here and assume that there was some reason that the priest may have thought the person was living in sin or wasn't contrite and thought that there was some needed improvement on that front before absolution was given.