Aha, nice. I'd personally say there's value to getting more diversity in the kind of apps that are hosted, and then indeed #Pleroma is an option. But also you can consider forks of #Mastodon, such as #Hometown with local-only posting or #Ecko.
If you want to go modern, innovative but still a tad experimental, then #GoToSocial may be a very interesting choice. Bit more experimental still you get to #Bonfire.