The first beginning sentence, after the cursive intro, I think tells the story. i.e., this is a book review, intended to generate additional interest in that book, and expand upon what that book said, but for the sake of the book.

Not that that is fundamentally bad, just… yes I agree with what you said so much. We have yet to be truly challenged, e.g. if Reddit sues Lemmy instances in court for some made-up reason(s), so that regardless of the truth the legal fees alone would bankrupt it (the same that happened to emulator software, and that Donald Trump has done to just about anyone that has ever worked for him ever).

It is all well and good to simply say “well if that ever happens then I will simply move to another instance” - but really, will that REALLY happen? How much effort are most people willing to put forth for their “social media”, if they had to pursue it on the high seas? How many people even left Twitter for Mastodon, or Reddit for Lemmy? For Mastodon users in particular, whose literal livelihoods can depend somewhat on being able to connect with clients/customers (especially I am thinking of artists), the potential for copycats and lost revenue from such a move seem disastrous.

It could be that we are all doing something that will forever remain niche. Which I am okay with actually:-P, but then as you said, this article gets a bit ahead of itself in talking about such things as if they are inevitable, when in reality it may be highly questionable, at least on a scale that equates our little experiment here with the Web 2.0 (and it did not escape my notice how it was placed vertically higher, and graphically cleaner e.g. Chrome and Facebook and such did not exist even as a remnant, and then goes even further to the Collective Web).

I suppose it is okay to dream, but better than either optimism or pessimism imho is realism. And I think at best we might be the moss that grows in the cracks between the humongous trees, and it would be okay if we allow ourselves to accept that - b/c while we might not have it in us to reform the entire world, at the very least we can clean up our little corner of it, and that’s enough:-).