I think there's a fair amount of 'status quo' bias here. Mastodon isn't going to be a massively federated system that recreates every nuance of the Twitter UX.

I think there's a fair amount of 'status quo' bias here. Mastodon isn't going to be a massively federated system that recreates every nuance of the Twitter UX. It could still be a worthwhile alternative to Twitter. It would be nice if there were thousands of Mastodon servers, but perhaps a handful is ok. Mastodon has a slightly confusing user experience, but so was early Twitter - maybe that's ok too. Whatever the downsides to Mastodon are they should be weighed against the benefits of moving away from Twitter, which are enormous. Irrespective of whether the Town Square metaphor fits exactly, Twitter hosts a massive amount of influential political discussion. Demonstrating that many users will stop using a venue for political speech if a billionaire gains unfettered control of it is an incredibly important precedent to set. Mastodon doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be a bit better than Twitter. I think it probably clears that bar easily.