I'm gung ho on federation because hexbear sucked ass pre-federation. Just a bunch of people congratulating each other on not being on Reddit, in between struggle sessions about dirt paths or tofu or whatever. When that wasn't happening we would be focusing on one part of the site that we deemed wasn't good for culture or whatever (looking at you, news mega haters). It was flush with power users that got treated with kiddie gloves because "that's just how they were" and any pushback got met with immediate hostility.
Federation brings in new blood, keeps people on their toes, has made mods less tolerant, and made people realise that their mortal enemies isn't another hexbear user who has a somewhat different reading of Lenin or fried broccoli wrong or had a mass grave of outdoor cats (joke)

I seriously do not understand the people who pine for pre-federation days. The site was stale and an ourobouros of personal grievances shielded in vague-posts in between reposted 5 year old memes from Reddit which we were glad we were better than.

Sorry, I needed an excuse to vent