I do not understand this idea of replacing social media sites with open software but then exposing/forcing users to choose an instance. Unless you're strictly t

I do not understand this idea of replacing social media sites with open software but then exposing/forcing users to choose an instance. Unless you're strictly trying to make your social media site for devs this makes no sense. Any common user will see this 'instance' choosing option and exit really fast. I guess instances are required for federation? What is federation? Why do I care? Why do I need to "Get Started" rather than just a search function like youtube? Why can't these instances exist on the backend and you just provide a front-end ui that combines them for users? I do not understand federation and neither do your non-dev users (98% of the market).