I agree! My experience is that having one person physically, financially, legally and emotionally responsible for the service is really hard. Burnout is high.
I hold in my heart every Mastodon admin doing the hard work right now.
And having a sort of mushy idea of community participation without any formal structure is also frustrating for both the admin and people on the service.
Coop structure is way clearer. Members have votes. Ownership is by an incorporated legal entity.