“Growth” as a concept does not have to be viewed solely through the lens of Silicon Valley, venture capital firms, or capitalism in general. In the context of the network: some people here, myself included, want to see the network develop along enough to sufficiently challenge the status quo, and dethrone mainstream social networks.
For the #Fediverse to thrive, we inevitably have to bring in more people, new communities, and new ways of doing things. We need to build towards better concepts for user agency, privacy, and control. We need to also embrace the fun stuff that brought us here in the first place.