Likewise Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook.

Hadn't stopped them.

There are many instances and instance operators to choose from. At least one of the choices may be sufficiently trustworthy for many users (e.g. an instance for their city run by someone in the neighborhood). You could also run your own instance.

These options sound better than trusting a corporation.

> The instance operator can see everything because there's no encryption.

What additionally is an instance operator seeing that isn't already public? Are you referring to direct messages and privacy/blocklist settings? Regardless it's no different than having a corporation see (and mine, or sell) this data.