@Lucinda @the_Effekt I've been defending him exactly this way for 5 years and honestly I am quite tired by now.

I don't see nor paint him as a dictator. But m.s has an outsized influence on fedi, Mastodon-the-software has an outsized influence on fedi, and Gargron controls both. He makes certain decisions — like making m.s *the* default — ignoring people saying this is a bad idea. So gets to deal with consequnces of these decisions. As they affect everyone else on fedi.