Certain elements among us cheering it on made no discernible difference

Yeah this very rarely ever matters. Viewing things as more of a "system on autopilot" (including who cheers and why) is going to give a more accurate picture than "we should not have supported this" which is idealism (perhaps, even, liberalism?).

The only effective solution I see (if we want to idealize) is to build out the "fediverse" of social networks into an at least somewhat viable alternative. Probably won't have "everyone in one place" like modern corporate social media does, but a lot of people could peel off and make something worthwhile nonetheless.