Try explaining to the influencer celeb why they should self-host. In fact, just try explaining to them they need to pick a mastodon instance, any instance. "it's so easy." No it's not.
I don't know where you got that snake oil but it doesn't reflect the pulse that's been there for years.
You need to take a step back, and look at what the average Joe is actually using. Don't assume that because your programmer friends use these obscure protocols for everyday communication that everyone is.
Try explaining that with an emoji and a fun tagline.
This is a *BAD THING* and it's not surprising people here on HN don't see that.
It would be way more natural to have interests as channels for a person's account. People could subscribe to only particular interests instead consuming the full stream of the person's posts. I'm not sure if Mastodon supports this, but it's sorely lacking in Twitter.
All of their content could be self-hosted: videos, music, ebooks, etc. It’s a rails server, so in theory all of that stuff could be baked in.
Why would you do that in the first place? They can self-host if they want.