There is an assumption here that 'people hosting their own instances' is the ultimate goal and I don't think that's true. The important thing is that someone ca

There is an assumption here that 'people hosting their own instances' is the ultimate goal and I don't think that's true. The important thing is that someone can always set up a new instance if they don't like the existing ones - competition isn't a perfect system but it tends towards providing the services users want. Without it though, you're locked in and stuck with what you've got. Also note that someone else providing you a service is not the same as someone else owning your data - a properly designed E2E encryption scheme can mean only you have your data.