My old person trait is that I think 'ghosting' is completely unacceptable and you owe the other person a face-to-face conversation.
Won't the same (or worse) anger happen though, if you just ignore them for long enough?
It does seem like the person you replied to had the right idea, to be definite in your relationship position.
If the texting person is the kind of person you describe, a confrontation seems likely to happen sooner or later anyways. Might as well get ahead of it, and not hide from it.