Mastodon really is whole different thing. What's comforting is that it is so decentralized that it can't easily be controlled or shut-down. You can't have douchebag billionaire come and take over *all* the instances. You can't have the government "decide" that Mastodon needs to be "controlled", whereas the new administration could probably pull some crazy shit and take over BlueSky.
We're in for a real ride in the future and there's a legit likelihood that it will be very very bad. Mastodon may end up being a social lifeline.