To anyone who thinks the recent #spam spells the end of fedi and that small instances will never be the same and the end is nigh and... Take a breath.
It can be incredibly simple to set up a mastodon instance - yes. However, in most cases it's quite involved.
Ticking the box for approved sign ups; Adding hCaptcha that (largely) prevents this kind of thing from happening, IS FREE AND SIMPLE. Compared to the rest of the setup process - it would be like building an entire house and going "Well ya I suppose we could put a lock on the front door or something too, sure."
Yesss we have a long way to go and this has uncovered deficiencies in both hosting and moderation of an instance but holy crap the posts I keep seeing that make it sound like fedi is dead lmao this wasn't the first bump in the road and it won't be the last.
I do acknowledge some instances will never return/recover from the operating cost (time/money) of this. I sympathize but it might be necessary.