I honestly don't see how being publicly owned—i.e. beholden to the profit motive—is anything other than objectively worse for a "de facto public town square".

I honestly don't see how being publicly owned—i.e. beholden to the profit motive—is anything other than objectively worse for a "de facto public town square". Twitter is addicted to engagement. Solving for this in the long term cannot be squared with modern capitalism.