Presuming your story is true (I don’t know either way) … yes, a place the fediverse attracts that kind of behaviour (as well as a few others that just aren’t worth getting caught up in and relying on). And starting a fork is, unfortunately (as forks can be awesome things), a tell-tail sign.
Many are inclined to mock of be unhappy about how seriously the head of Mastodon takes himself (and how dominant his platform is) — he calls him the CEO of mastoodn, it’s actually a registered non-profit company, he openly considers himself the BDFL (beneficent dictator for life) — but he’s been at it since 2016, is committed, creates an appearance of stability and is the only one that’s got the whole fediverse thing working on a significant scale, whatever flaws he and his project might have. All of the hacking culture and sentiment can only take a project so far … as it ultimately needs people and users to be successful.