Consider what happens when $\theta = 90°$. At this instant the mass is moving tangentially to the the string i.e. we momentarily have circular motion. Yes.
@JohnRennie On a L-t graph, as the block moves left to right, we get an extrema when the string is perpendicular to the surface. And hence the derivative is zero.
Now I get your statement. I thought it was something like assuming $\theta$ to be a constant like I did yesterday which eventually led to the incorrect answer.
If we had some form of rails keeping the block moving horizontal then as $\theta \to 90°$ the force we would need to keep $v$ constant would go to infinity.