I agree that the motivations aren’t good (and I’m also critical of many of the things that big tech companies are doing to pander to MAGA) but it’s still a functional improvement in my opinion. I just see the decision as a “even a broken clock is right twice a day” sort of scenario.

Unpopular opinion maybe, but I’m ok with this. It’s less clutter if all you want is to see public holidays, and it’s easy enough to install calendars that show other events.

Portal

I generally agree, but one counter example I keep thinking of is Wikipedia. Massively successful site with few rivals despite being a nonprofit. I imagine a social media app could build some degree of success with that model. The main obstacles to my mind are a good UI/UX and a community funding approach sufficient to keep ahead of growth. It’s not yet clear whether Lemmy is “the one” to provide either. As great as the fediverse concept is, it’s harder to use and to consolidate funding for than it perhaps should be.