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when it comes to platforms, in my opinion, the most important thing to look at is the power gradient between the users and the provider(s)

this power gradient can be influenced by many factors, some factors will dominate everything else, such as the software being proprietary or there only being a single provider (said differently, the service is centralized). these immediately make the gradient very steep

but these are not the only factors, the community in a free software project being toxic also makes the gradient steeper, as this makes it harder to participate in the community around a project

another factor is interoperability: open and interoperable standards tend to make the gradient a lot more shallow, because anyone can choose (or create) any implementation they want

but even if you have an open, federated standard, if it is difficult to self-host, that makes the gradient slightly steeper again

some other things make the gradient steeper, for example a centralized platform demanding a phone number or id verification, or a free software project not allowing community involvement