I don't think this argument is really that relevant. Imo for a federated network to be successful it doesn't need to be huge, just big enough to sustain itself

I don't think this argument is really that relevant. Imo for a federated network to be successful it doesn't need to be huge, just big enough to sustain itself and keep the conversations going. Besides that the control over rules and the experience of the network that federation can provide can be beneficial. The only reason why Mastodon doesn't have an indie music server is because of the network effect of Twitter.