A counterpoint would be to ask which platforms digg and reddit began as clones of. Seems they were pretty unique and yet exploded almost from the beginning. Snapchat? Vine? They were both pretty unique.

To OPs point, basically all of the fediverse apps are clones, which aside from the federation element, don't add anything to the formula they are cloning. Even if you prefer the incremental strategy, where things are basically the same with a few new features, it would be hard to argue the fediverse apps even meet that bar. To the average user, federation is a technical issue they'd rather not be bothered with.

So I'm inclined to agree that this first wave of open source, federated social platforms have ended up, in terms of social features, pretty uninnovative. But before I sound too critical, I appreciate the work these app builders have put in, and clearly use the apps myself.

It may be a question of project scope. If what you aim to do is liberate yourself and your fellow nerds from corporate platforms, the clones suffice. If, perhaps, your aim is to liberate everyone, you'll need innovation in both the backend, and the social features to draw in everyone else.

Caveat - I've only really used Mastodon and Lemmy. Perhaps others are different.

Actually, social media work the opposite: each has to offer a unique social "challenge" to become popular. In X, you have to write an interesting post with hard constraints in length. In Instagram, you have to publish beautiful photos. In TikTok, you have to publish funny short videos.

Until now, open source has provided innovative technical solutions but zero innovation in term of "social interaction".