Exactly. Ukraine is basically begging to be let into NATO, Georgia tried to join NATO and got invaded by Russia in 2008 because of it, and Finland and Sweden -- historically proudly neutral countries -- swayed in favor of joining NATO.

My best friend in Finland had the same change of opinion. Before the invasion, he was against joining NATO because it seemed unnecessary, but after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, his attitude is "Fuck Putin, we need to join NATO". Popular polling within Finland and Sweden back this up. The majority of Finns and Swedes want to be in NATO.

And I'm pretty sure polling would also show that Poland and the Baltics are very happy to be in NATO right now. Like consider Estonia. Barely more than a million people. Without NATO, Russia could absolutely steamroll them if they wanted to. But NATO is the single biggest protection they have against invasion, and of course that is ludicrously desirable for any small country bordering Russia that wishes to not be a puppet for Putin!

When the carrot is so big, you don't even need a stick to entice new NATO members. So it's kind of weird to act like NATO is somehow bullying new countries into joining. If anything, new countries joining creates massive new geopolitical liabilies, which is why it's so hard to join NATO. Joining NATO requires every single member to affirmatively agree to defend that new member's land and citizens as if they were their own land and citizens. Pretty big frickin liability if you ask me.