This isn’t as much a reply to you as it is to everybody:

The fediverse isn’t meant to be centralized with big instances bearing the brunt of the load.

It costs less than 5€ a month for a cheap VPS, as you say it’s pretty easy to set up (If you can reformat a computer, you have the skills to set up a plethora of federated platform). That includes 200GB storage and 32TB of outbound traffic, and one could even set up a home “CDN” PeerTube to share the load.

I don’t want big creators making clickbaity content just to make money. I don’t want the fediverse to be commersialized. I want enthusiasts and those willing to make an effort to be more free.

For some that means setting up their own systems. For some that merely means making a Mastodon account (big step for some people, believe it or not).

It takes some effort, it takes some learning. It might even mean that people won’t get disgustingly rich. But we can make a new internet.

Let’s not being the old ways there.