The interesting thing is whether there's enough resale value in a Lemmy instance to justify the very real operational costs of it. Obviously depends a lot on how the post-blackout times go, but I share the opinion that any federation of moderation/data/etc. is a win, even if it's perhaps more centralized than would be ideal.

It's a good point. Apple does tend to be a master of product design and marketing if not always the technological leader.