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I am a native Bangalorean, but almost every one of my friends has moved here from another city. All of them love Bangalore, and are proud to call it their home.
Firstly, there are no mobs going around, and looking for Hindi speakers/ "North Indians" to attack. Any "anti-Hindi sentiment" you hear about is almost always limited to a situation where someone rudely demands that locals speak Hindi, and are told "It's not our national language". This is almost always triggered by some larger fight, and language is just an incidental strawman that is brought up.
As long as you pick up some 6-8 words of basic Kannada, start with them, and politely ask if people can speak English or Hindi (or Tamil, which also works well in Bangalore), you'll be fine. Almost everyone in Bangalore can speak both Hindi and English at a conversational level (including vendors and cab drivers), but let them lead with the language of choice, and you'll be OK.
Coming to "identity politics"- the government is basically promoting more Kannada. This means that they are pushing for more jobs for Kannada speakers, more visible use of Kannada, and quotas at a lower level (think security guard, sweeper, etc) for Kannada speakers in private firms. There are also local quotas in education (including in CLAT) for people with "Kannada domicile"- but if you look at the names at the top, there are a lot of Agarwals and Mukherjees and Kurians and other non-Kannadiga names. As long as they've been in Karnataka for the qualifying period, they are counted as "locals" and can avail the quotas.
There is also a backlash against the government's push of Hindi over Kannada- and this is a real problem for many people, especially in rural areas. For many years, bank forms were only available in English and Hindi. There was an incident last week where a public sector bank manager refused to help customers who only spoke Kannada, insisting that they speak Hindi. There were instances of some signboards being only available in Hindi and English. A lot of the "language and identity politics" that you speak of comes from trying to correct these Central Government missteps. It's sad that a State government has to step in and do all this, but think about it from the perspective of those who are not getting basic services in their own state and in their own language.
Bangalore is still a vibrant and thriving city, with all the things that makes a city amazing- food, culture, art, sports, and a strong economy. Don't let Twitter and Reddit hot takes scare you away.