Yeah, the only way defederation is a feature is if there's a way (even if it's standardized at the client-side) to merge that defederation for those who want a cohesive experience.

It'd almost be better if every user could pick their own "federations" instead of it being at the server level. Obviously the servers need to have that control and my hypothetical might not be in throwing range of what lemmy can/should do.