It's a very long post, but a lot of it is a detailed discussion of terminology in the appendix -- no need to read that unless you're into definitional struggles.
Maybe competition will make the Fediverse better? With or without Bluesky in the loop, we could take inspiration from their unique features and what people like about their platform. I certainly didn't know they take onboarding seriously and offer shared blocklists and useful stuff like that...
Yeah. There are a few issues with ActivityPub. And as far as I know it's questionable whether it could scale to a scale the large commercial platforms have. I'd be in for a more efficient successor with a few more standardized extras. I guess it'll be hard to agree on a new protocol. External pressure/influence could help, IMO. Although, at the same time I'm grateful I have this platform.