[zimpenfish]

> so many interoperability issues [...] the protocol is either too complicated or not robust enough

From what I've read, it sounds like the interoperability issues come from not implementing AP the same way as Mastodon rather than anything specifically protocol-related. Hence, e.g., Pleroma going out of its way to be Mastodon compatible as a design goal and GoToSocial having lots of issues because it hasn't yet gone that route[1]

[1] e.g. they have an issue where some client apps don't work with GTS because GTS doesn't advertise a version number sufficiently high enough - because the apps are looking for "v > 2.10 because that's when Mastodon introduced feature Z".

[remram]

I wouldn't say that. In practice, everyone tests Mastodon first since it is the most popular implementation.

Here are the ones gotosocial have issues with: https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/projects/...

Not to say I don't believe you about Mastodon, I am sure they have their quirks as well.