So if the likes Obama or Stephen King want to move over to Mastodon their barrier of entry would be to complete this laundry list [1] or find a service that does this for them? Given that they own the instance, they would also need to provide moderation for it.
I don't disagree that there are solutions to the scale problem. What I have trouble seeing are solutions that are viable. That's the thing about a centralized service--you have a company that handles all of this so your users don't have to.
[1] https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own/#so-you-want...
Assuming that Mastodon growth continues, such services will probably emerge (there are already a couple of Mastodon hosting services, but there's probably a market for a "so you're a celebrity who wants a single-user Mastodon instance" service which has yet to be filled).
> Given that they own the instance, they would also need to provide moderation for it.
If it was a single-user instance, that would be fairly trivial :)
When you start off an an empty instance, the only thing you see is yourself. There are no trends, there are no posts, and everywhere you click is just you.
You have to start following people for it start populating, but that requires knowing strings to follow. And then you can you see is stuff in your bubble (maybe a feature?).
But it really missing the dopamine response, as after you read the stuff people you follow posted or boosted; there is nothing.
A dedicated person can push through this initial period. But for mass appeal, people will quickly bounce if they feel like no one else is there.
They've had years to get this right. This is their moment to shine and they're blowing it.