> cut "companies" out entirely. As written, that is probably not possible. As long as people don't want to manage their own services someone will offer to do

> cut "companies" out entirely. As written, that is probably not possible. As long as people don't want to manage their own services someone will offer to do it for them (for some form of compensation) , and one of the corporate forms is the natural way to structure that, particularly in the presence of liability laws. I expect to eventually see a mastodon service that does do ads as I think the current system is unsustainable with current attitudes. I have no idea how they'll make ads acceptable, but I have faith in the creativity of people looking to make a steady buck. Once they have the extra income, that will make it less likely to collapse than its peers, so evolution will kick in and many will do whatever it is that stabilized the income.