This is one of the best overviews of the differences I’ve seen. Nicely done.
The only thing I want to add having played around a bit with Bluesky before eventually deciding it wasn’t for me is that, unlike Mastodon, Bluesky does use a series of algorithms you can choose from when you initially sign up that curate your feed for you.
Basically from a purely user experience, the major difference is the sign up of an instance on Mastodon (which technically exists on Bluesky, but doesn’t really exist in practice), and the more apparent difference is the lack of an algorithmic feed on Mastodon.
What I like about the Fediverse is that I am in complete control of my feed. There are no algorithms trying to analyze my behavior to predict what I like. I prefer to have people recommend me shows, movies, books, articles, subjects, etc., and that’s what I get on Federated Platforms.
This does mean initially though my feed is just filled with a chronological ordering of hashtags I’ve followed by selecting interests during sign up, and thusly it takes some additional effort to setup and personalize when compared to centralized platforms.
It’ll take a while before people wean themselves off the abusive relationships inherent to centralized social media, but imho, Federated Platforms will eventually become as ubiquitous as RSS feeds and wikis. Quietly everywhere, not flashy at all, but running the best parts of the web.
EDIT: Removal of repetitive wording.
I’ve been using Links for years. I rarely meet another Links user, as TUI web browser use is rare in and of itself, and most go to w3m or lynx from what I’ve seen.
TUI browsers are surprisingly capable of getting you around the web even with more limited features, as long as you mainly are focused on accessing public text documents and communications.
I know one of the main uses I saw some utilizing Links for was when it was recommended during the Gentoo installation process when you had to download a stage 3 tarball. Most just had another browser or used a different Linux iso during installation, but if you were installing via the tty, and had no other device with a web browser on it, that was (and still is) a solid choice for finding and downloading the needed tarball.
Anyways, just a bit of lore. My only complaint with Links is it doesn’t let you change the keybindings and they default to emacs. No shade to emacs, but I am and probably always will be a vim user, so there’s that. Other than that I’ll always be a big fan of Links.