@rwg Hi Robert: I'm writing up a history of this from my own first hand experience. I do not perceive this as you did.
The only voices making this case then were fedi admins from "free speech extremist" sites - and maybe 1 app developer. And no one said "let them join & give them a chance 1st." Those not willing to defed, would not do so regardless out of pure libertarian principles. I'm also documenting how quickly we got to 97 percent isolated. It was weeks. It was remarkably fast.