federation is all to often at the whims of some admin in a pissing match with another server,

Yes, and that's kind of by design. The whole system is not designed to emulate large centralized social media, but to enable content syndication and synchronization across independent publishing platforms. Each site, then, is hosting and serving content published on other sites.

If a site admin decides they don't want to be in a contnt hosting agreememt with another, that's gotta be seen as OK. I wouldn't want to host most people's blogs on my website. Especially if the publishing site had a poor track record of content moderation.

But services like Mastodon bend over backwards to hide the nature of the fediverse, and make it seem like it's all one common place and experince. Most major fediverse platforms now fail to allow sufficient theming or site branding, and reinforce the idea that the local site's community is meaningless, and is to be ignored.

It bypasses the whole point, so that everyone can get all shakey trying to avoid the FOMO.

If anything, they just proved your meme is right

Discovery sucks out loud

It doesn't have recommendation engine that forces everybody into certain streams of thought, how terrible. You want someone to do the thinking for you? Can't think for yourself?

Federation is all to often at the whims of some admin in a pissing match with another server

The admin has *audible gasp* power and users can choose the server they want? It's almost like they are free. Also twitter, facebook, insta and other sites have never banned anybody because they are bastions of free speech.

even when you know someone you want to follow locating their account is a hassle

I know search boxes are advanced tech for you, but the majority it really isn't that hard.

it's slower than Bluesky to populate across federated instances

"I want my content and I want it now!" OK, addict. Maybe going slow would be better for you. Relax.

there isn't a good app design out there for free, , the web portal is inferior in both UX and UI to even Twitter

Would you imagine that, people who donate their free time and skills to a project without getting reimbursed need longer to design and implement something than those working full time on it for tens of thousands of euros a year. And of course there are users like you that want the free work for free. As soon as somebody asks for money "Oh no, then I'll go to the VC funded alternative where I'm the product! At least it's free!"

Always the same with you people. You want a free alternative that can compete with a product that has millions invested in it over multiple years but won't accept anything less than perfection, otherwise it's "garbage" and "unusable".