Rochko appears to be getting it:
“We believe it’s important for Mastodon to be good as a product on its own merits, and not just because of its ideology. If we only attract people who already care about decentralization, our ability to make decentralization mainstream becomes that much harder. Making the onboarding process as easy as possible helps new users get past the sign-up process and more quickly engage with others.”
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/05/a-new-onboarding-experience-on-mastodon/