This feels a little like "the cathedral and the bazaar" in the sense that it's either controlled by a small group or allowed to fragment and grow organically in

This feels a little like "the cathedral and the bazaar" in the sense that it's either controlled by a small group or allowed to fragment and grow organically in a less structured, organised-chaos model. There are pros and cons either way, but finally it seems that we have a choice. The Fediverse is here and will remain, and seems to have enough gatekeeping to limit federation of unwanted/spammy/malicious servers. Centralised forms of social media will continue to exist but this new landscape will change how they work and will change the content created and shared.