˗ˏˋ wakest ˎˊ˗, my approach is to start with the UX and work my way down from there. I can never let the UX be driven by the underlying layers — users won't care about that. They'll see that things are wonky. They won't care that the underlying protocol is technically beautiful but restrictive in practice in ways that leak into the UX.
Pixelfed groups *should* be compatible with Smithereen, at least that's what @dansup@mastodon.social told me. I've never had the chance to test them myself.