p.s. The complete thread from the developers at https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/115989801184595302 has even more info about this initiative:

@homegrown this is actually really great!

@homegrown

It's seriously about time

Way past time, as a matter of fact

I've been on Mastodon generally since November 2, 2022, and it was an issue back then

cc @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering

@homegrown

This is good to see. I've watched the public exchanges about the default server issue and to see that it has been resolved equitably is nice!

#Mastodon

@homegrown "running vanilla mastodon" will exclude a lot of good instances :/

@homegrown

This is good news!
I know the apps sign up flow has been a concern of yours (and others) for a while. Hopefully this will result in healthier, more even distribution of new accounts across the network.