Don't mention it. It all clicked for me when I set up a Calckey instance and explored the database. It really hammered home that everything in this space is local. Remote users have entires in the user table. Rmeitr posts are stored right along side those originating elsewhere. Everything I looked at, everyone I spoke to, it was all there.
And with that, the entire project snapped into focus, and all of the weird quirks of the space made perfect sense.
Everything is local. Anything that looks otherwise is an illusion.