Okay, your explanation makes sense. I still don't think saying that Mastodon would merge with Meta is even close to correct, as there are a lot of other instances besides mastodon.social and mastodon.online, but I at least understand the sentiment now.

FWIW I left Mastodon shortly after I tried it because I have the opposite opinion of you; he didn't implement search fast enough! I actually liked Twitter before that one guy took over. But I also understand those that are looking for a quieter, more private place.

Where did you read that Mastodon is merging with Meta? If you're talking about Threads being launched, I am pretty sure that all the drama was about whether any Fediverse/ActivityPub instance, whether it be Mastodon, Misskey, Firefish, would federate with Threads. Even Lemmy instances like Beehaw could choose to federate with Threads, but probably the compatibility would not be great.

That said, I do think it's important to find an instance with federation policies that match what you're looking for. If Beehaw wants to isolate itself and be its own thing in order to protect its users, I'm sure many people will appreciate that, perhaps even you! I'm on the fence whether that's what I'm looking for, myself.

There are other Firefish instances, though, in case one wants to use Firefish and also federate with mastodon.art.

There's Antennas, although they may not be exactly what you're looking for since they're in a separate location from your main feed.

I'm a big fan.