Step 1: Build a decentralized social network.

Step 2: Let things run their natural course.

You cannot buy a decentralised network!

Perhaps one cannot simply buy the entire network, but that doesn't mean the network can't be manipulated heavily, or parts of it being bought. Just look at nodes blocking eachother, and all the drama around that.

But there’s another way: make it irrelevant.

This is correct. Dedicated commercial efforts can have the opportunity, funding, motivation, and leadership to accomplish what the cat-herders can't.

... various stories ...

Interesting read

if Meta joins the Fediverse, Meta will be the only one winning

Absolutely. Lets game-plan this. Millions of people are dissatisifed with Reddit. So they start migrating to Lemmy over time. But lemmy sucks (for reasons), and only works at scale with giant infastructure. So people use Facebook to access Lemmy.

But then Facebook also has full control over what Facebook-lemmy users can see or do. Facebook can also choose which nodes it blocks, or threaten nodes that they must censor certain content or be blocked. Facebook can also break the protocol for everyone else, and everyone else suffers the most because FB has the most users and everyone else looks broken.

Then FB cuts off the connection one day, and Lemmy dies overnight.