Unfortunately, a lot of people do. In order to obtain the critical mass you need for a functioning social network, you need content that a lot of people will want to look at. In this case, that means influencers.
I don't know what your basis is for this assertion, but it's not true in the case of Mastodon. It functions just fine. I don't need some random checkmark bearer on there to enjoy my little corner of the fediverse. The instance I'm on covers its costs with a Patreon. That's true of most I interact with. There is no need for massive scale. Only ad-supported centralized services require that to function.
Not everyone has eating the world as a goal. Lance Ulanoff didn't understand this when he declared Mastodon DOA two years ago because he couldn't find William Shatner, and people continue to make the same mistake. I don't want to follow William Shatner or Lance Ulanoff, so they can stay on Twitter with people who do.
Okay. That's not my goal. I don't who has that as a goal. Is it your goal? Maybe you should talk to Shatner about Mastodon. He's fairly responsive on Twitter.
Even the main Mastodon project instance is funded by a Patreon. I don't think Eugen would complain if he had a few more users, but growth doesn't seem to be the #1 goal. Only the tech press and its target audience seems to care about how fast Mastodon grows. They are free to start a growth-focused instance.
The instance I'm on has 800+ active users. The numbers on closely related instances are probably similar. That's plenty.
