It has served a couple other purposes also. When bootstrapping a new social media site, it is better to have a handful of active communities than a wasteland of 400 dead ones. If this is the only factor being taken into account, it does make sense to open it up after a baseline of activity is established.
Another reason is it is better for communities to be created on the basis of need and community investment, then for some fly-by-night account nobody is familiar with to swoop in and squat on something like c/worldnews. This site operates like one large community, despite having dozens of forums. It is different from Reddit where there are thousands of different communities which often hate each other and just happen to share the same website. In general, this is the way of the Fediverse. If there are irreconcilable differences, that indicates it is time for a new instance. A much nicer option then re-litigating basic principles like the right for minorities to exist every day until the end of time.
It has served a couple other purposes also. When bootstrapping a new social media site, it is better to have a handful of active communities than a wasteland of 400 dead ones. If this is the only factor being taken into account, it does make sense to open it up after a baseline of activity is established.
Another reason is it is better for communities to be created on the basis of need and community investment, then for some fly-by-night account nobody is familiar with to swoop in and squat on something like c/worldnews. This site operates like one large community, despite having dozens of forums. It is different from Reddit where there are thousands of different communities which often hate each other and just happen to share the same website. In general, this is the way of the Fediverse. If there are irreconcilable differences, that indicates it is time for a new instance. A much nicer option then re-litigating basic principles like the right for minorities to exist every day until the end of time.