I kinda of lean towards the idea of "private accounts" being a bad idea as a result, just because it creates a false sense of security. But I'm not in the target demographic so idk
melmi
The issue is that if you don't default to federation, it becomes essentially impossible for new instances to join the fediverse. A potential new instance would have to go around to every single existing instance and ask to be allowlisted, which is onerous for both the new instances and for the large server admins who would be getting tons of requests. It would also essentially kill small-scale selfhosting as a result.
A big part of IPv4's persistence I think is that people insist that IPv6 is complicated, but then refuse to learn it or think outside their IPv4-brain. It's just different enough that it's easier to stay in v4, even if it requires a million hackjob fixes to keep around.
If anything is to blame for that, it's the lack of momentum behind IPv6. We're out of IPv4, so NAT is inevitable, and IPv6 doesn't have enough inertia for single-stack to be viable (certainly wouldn't be described as "no drama" at least).
I love how the recommendations for avoiding attacks like this include avoiding pirated content but ignores the fact that you have to go to a clearly hijacked site to download this, and then run an installer with the flimsy justification of getting a "special codec." This is not a sophisticated attack or something endemic to piracy, basic common sense would protect you from this. I can't believe people are still falling for this stuff.