Astiolo

This can be called the bike shed effect or Law of Triviality. It's not just programming where a simple digestible idea will be contested because it's easy to poke holes, while something more complicated and more consequential is much harder, so it gets little to no resistance.

I'd say anything can become political, but not everything is.

Platforms can handle multiple cultures and the cultures will continually change and evolve. I certainly wouldn't worry about harming Pixelfed by posting more personal photos. People don't need to follow you if they don't want to.

Probably don't need to go the works route, if they can form a good partnership. But, I really doubt they could do it as a customer of a competitor.

Doesn't look like it. I believe now is about the time they were aiming for, so hopefully there will be some news soon.