it will succumb to all the same socio-economic pressures.

The fediverse’s decentralized nature means that while some parts of it will succumb (maybe even most), there will inevitably be parts of it that don’t (or at least to a much lesser extent.)

It’s quite possible that the parts of the fediverse that avoid commercialization, though, are the ones that allow things that businesses don’t want to be associated with, like saying the N word.

Could be a great resurgence of free speech, although you’ll have to tolerate people saying things you don’t like.