I use Arch NixOS BTW.

NixOS. Declarative config with opt-in state is awesome.

Click signup. Research servers to try to find one that looks good, wonder if you can sign up for multiple, or change account to other server, or what all the implications of having tons of servers even are, encounter choice paralysis. Quit and go somewhere that hides the federation.

Part of email's success is that for most people the federation has been hidden. You got your email through your university or employer (pre eternal September), then through your ISP (post eternal September), then later through gmail. There's no apparent meaningful choice to setting it up, you just use the default. The choice in the fediverse is just as meaningless, but it's a huge focus of the process for no good reason.