I found myself chatting with my dad and brought up the topic. I couldn’t come up with any actual advantages a federated platforms had. The main reason I use any federated platforms is because they’re either not as enshittified as the alternatives or run by huge dickwads. Since it mostly fits those criteria, I’m on Bluesky too, but once that goes I’ll either switch to another un-shittified platform or Mastodon.
But on its own, what advantage does a federated social media have?
The special thing about federated social media is that if you don’t like something about one specific instance you can go to another instance or even create your own and still be part of the whole system. You’re not stuck with some leadership that you have to endure. Instead you can be your own boss or choose a nice place to stay.
I think all the other things that people like about it, like “no algorithm”, come naturally from this fact but are not inherent to the system.