Independent as in: closed off? Servers that don't federate are extremely rare ime, except for the likes of Gab that most people just choose not to federate with.
Remote follow don’t work as good as hardcore users would like it to. Federation mechanisms would have to have kilo- to mega-posts/second bandwidth but not happening.
Also that federation choice being in hand of instance owners makes an account on each instances a must. You are going to have a person or two that your instance owners don’t like, or instance or two that don’t like yours.
Also that federation choice being in hand of instance owners makes an account on each instances a must. You are going to have a person or two that your instance owners don’t like, or instance or two that don’t like yours.