Fediverse

Bluesky plans to generate revenue via subscriptions at some later point and by providing other paid services, like access to custom domains.

This looks like a very important point. I doubt we'll see true federation with "access to custom domains".

it is the MAIN selling point of the fediverse.

Debatable, I would say it's the ability to selfhost and not be under the mercy of "the platform" or the admin's subjective morals, you can also not federate and make the place your own

I wouldn't say it's the main selling point. Because if it is, there is no selling point.

The fediverse is a series of social networks. Social networks rely on being SOCIAL. So in order to have a healthy social network you need a large number of people. The more people, the better the platform. It's that easy.

The current audience for Lemmy/Fediverse is a niche group. This group highly prefers linux. It cares (and knows about) federation. It cares about adblocking. It highly prefers political discussions. It cares about privacy.

As for the majority of the country? They don't give a shit. About any of that. At all.

Linux is a platform that if you based user numbers on features, it SHOULD be the number one operating system. It's not. It's not even close. I'll put it this way. The Dallas Cowboys play in a stadium that can fill 100,000 people. If you filled a sellout crowd for an event, the ticketing ushers would outnumber the linux users in that building.

And the reason for this, is the average American does not give one shit if something has enshitification. Or even notice enshitification. That's the reason products keep shrinkings, ads keep appearing. If people stopped using the products, they would stop doing that. It's only profitable because people don't care.

So if the major selling point is "we don't have corporate enshitification", and the majority of people don't even know what that means, then it's not a selling point is it?