I think you are nearly intentionally misreading the conversation then. "They are competing in a way that seems like EEE for Mastodon because it feels like an op

I think you are nearly intentionally misreading the conversation then. "They are competing in a way that seems like EEE for Mastodon because it feels like an open source bait-and-switch" can be a very useful, actual conversation. The conversation premise starts from a presumption "it's not EEE, but it feels close, let's discuss why/why not because it can help dispell fear, uncertainty, and doubt or sand-bag the FUD with reasons". FUD on its own isn't the problem, it's what you do with the FUD. People telling you that they feel FUD about a project can be a useful gut check and a place to examine what missing information or what missing evidence to go look for. Personally, I believe that driving this towards meta-conversation is less useful to "promoting" mutual understanding than trying to use an analogy towards EEE as a way to describe feelings about a project. Analogies are useful constructs and dismissing analogies as "inflammatory and inaccurate", especially analogies involving feelings and opinions, is its own "inflammatory and inaccurate" move.