I like Mastodon, but "too complicated" is a legitimate concern and maybe undersells it. It's hard to use and puts a lot of burden on the users. Also seems like it's hard on admins, who have to deal with bad actors on their own server as well as constantly re-evaluate the volume of bad actors on servers they federate with.

As a user I don't want to deal with too much abuse but I also don't want to have to worry about my server not being able to connect to my friend's server. These goals seem like they're at odds. I could see it working if most users coalesce around a single server or a small network of servers with similar rules.