@atomicpoet Good discussion up until that point. I understand the official app directing people to mastodon.social because it avoids the dilemmas newcomers have in choosing an instance. But that only works with full nomadic identity, so said newcomers can bide their time picking a new instance that suits them.
Without that, it does look like an attempt at centralization. Most users simply don't want to lose all their content, bookmarks, etc., even if they keep their followers.