We want a web where users are in control. That means a web where we freely choose our online services from a wide menu and stay with them because we like them, not because we can’t afford to leave. We want a web where you get the things you ask for, not the things that corporate shareholders would prefer that you’d asked for. We want a web where willing listeners and willing speakers, willing sellers and willing buyers, willing makers, and willing audiences are all able to transact and communicate without worrying about their relationships being held hostage or disrupted to cram “sponsored posts” into their eyeballs.
I feel this deeply, but I worry we're long past it. A platform has to facilitate these things. which means you have to surrender to the way the platform works to participate. And the truth is, no matter if it's volunteers or a corporation, there is going to be an interfering element that you have to trust not to fuck with you.
The fediverse feels like it's part of the solution, but not all of it. There are still gatekeepers here who are capable of abusing that position to "disrupt", maybe not for "sponsored posts", but for other reasons.