To me, the federated social network (Fediverse, which Mastodon is one portal into) offers some distinct advantages for pluralism. No single entity can control the whole discourse. When you don't agree with your mods, you can go elsewhere without losing your connections with people: just move to a different instance.
Furthermore it's not controlled by corporations, so there is no incentive of trying to spread things like the plague just to get you addicted and make as much money.
In practice the design of the Fediverse leaves some problems open (notably, moving between servers comes at a cost to the online identity you built, and getting bootstrapped if you don't have real-life connections who are interested is more difficult) and it even creates some interesting problems of its own. But all in all it's better already than the mono-idea, "there is one norm everyone should stick to" culture we see on commercial offerings.