[southerntofu]

In a decentralized network, you don't really have a choice. Such metrics can only be imposed with central login and "unique identity" policies.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all have shadowy businesses to buy likes, followers and whatnot. Now just imagine how that would turn out in a decentralized setting where any script can create many accounts on several different servers of the fediverse.

Big corps have to show the metrics because their "engagement" model relies on those number to keep people addicted. On the fediverse, there is no incentive to make people addicts to your service, and showing the numbers would just encourage the same kind of fake-fame industry as on those big networks.