Believe this is cached copies held by your local instance. When federation drops you can still see comments proliferate between anyone federated with you also on the outside, just like with beehaw.

Not an expert so I hope someone corrects me if I'm wrong.

Well kinda feels like my house burned down.

Hopefully the push towards some kind of direct migration comes on the feels of this.

You're a saint. I'd woken up and started to do the usual before I realized I had a backup and that someone here already had the answer.