What would make Mastodon prominent social media platform in regular people's eyes when it's not any of these (opposing opinions in parentheses):
Mastodon is free and open source (means nothing to the people)
Many known people use Mastodon (not enough or not the right people)
14 million users (clearly not "enough" when compared to centralized services OR not the right people)
Activity and engagement from a personal perspective is way better than in other services (a subjective opinion or a "bubble" doesn't prove anything for anyone)
Better features (what good are they when nobody notable uses Mastodon and the service is nothing)
It's been active for a long time and Fediverse is vast (who cares about that, it's for the tiny communities and for nerds)
You just choose the server, create an account and start using it (too complicated and weird)
