I mostly feel for the two developers who have the task of building a social media network for a wage that couldn't buy you one developer. They're overloaded with issues and project goals. You cannot go 10 minutes on the 'fediverse' without hearing how the developers are awful tankies while then demanding them to add features. Must be exhausting.
I agree its an important feature, I want the internet to have privacy in mind. But its really easy to overlook how much work they put in only to be met with such hostility. Everyone talks about 'but let's just fork it, that's the beauty of open source' when I guarantee you will not find devs with the same dedication or passion.
Hope that people can agree that wanting this feature is A-OK but that the people working on this project are just overworked people who deserve a bit more respect.
Instagram reels and youtube shorts is structured in the same way (from what I can see superficially), though I dont use anything but Lemmy/YouTube. Though the common complaint I hear is that the algorithm is significantly worse on alternatives.
Not sure how this meaningfully changes anything other than forcing people to use another app that also violates their privacy.