I have never been an "online community first" person. The internet is how I stay in touch with people I met in real life. I'm not a "tweet comments at celebrities" guy. I was never funny enough to be the funniest person on Twitter.
So when Twitter was accidentally purchased
That’s true, you may or may not agree with the decision but it the motivation was certainly because Mastodon is trying to find ways to not repeat the destructive patterns of other social media.