There are reasons I ADORE fedi and will keep using it. But truthfully, I think it's time we stop pandering to crowds we stand no chance at attracting until problems get fixed.
If smaller servers formed a federation of their own to put pressure on Mastodon and .social to actually make changes marginalized folks keep asking for? Actually threatened mass defederation from .social to leave them alone on an island to make their own thing? Maybe we'd see an uptick in popularity as people show interest.
Till then, this place will be its own quite successful niche, never a true "Twitter replacement." And honestly, I don't think many users actually want this to be a Twitter replacement anyways. with how they act.