Exactly. And that's kinda part of my point. Federation is all about copying content from server to server, so that the central organising structure is the server or instance. Duplicate enough content and a user won't need to move ... is kinda the idea. The reality though is more complex than that, as platforms and their designs get in the way, as does defederation and unpredictable admins. Reality is that the fediverse isn't user driven, and once you see that, the whole decentralised thing starts to become more questionable (IMO).

So given all of that, I'm wondering what happens if you take away the whole federated idea but still retain some of the aims and principles and try a more straightforward approach that uses the tools and technologies we already have.