From the mods' explanations (ongoing), it sounds like if any aspect of an instance is a problem (communities or users), the only way to block it is full defederation (god I hate typing and seeing that word). They're hoping once the tools are less blunt this can be rolled back, and, frankly, I can understand why they don't want an instance they've put years of effort into losing its tone.

What sort of redundancy are you referring to? I'm still wrapping my head around all this, so I can't imagine what that would look like outside of basically instances that serve as embassies. I'm planning on spinning up an instance myself to play with at some point; that would be accelerated if another schism hits down the road and it becomes necessary to federate for myself.