I look at it from the standpoint of federated social media dethroning the reigning social media "monopolies". Companies like Facebook, Twitter, and now Reddit have shown that they want engagement at all costs and will prioritize profit over people. The faster they die, the better.

From this perspective, numbers and growth are important (although of course they're not everything): People won't jump ship to a new platform unless there is a critical mass of users, because a platform needs a sufficient number of users to provide the same variety of user generated content and communities that people have come to expect.

More people using federated social media also means more developers, better apps, and a better user experience for everyone using it.

There's a snowball effect, and maybe one day we'll get out from under our rich social media overlords.