The premise is good, but the linked article is too short to explain why protocols encourage decentralization, which protects against authoritarism, censorship, and promotes bona-fide free speech (not to be confused with "BuH mAh FrEe SpEeCH!" morons that only like free speech when it agrees with them and don't when it doesn't).

For a more lengthy discussion, which includes Internet history, the legacy of the USA's Section 230 of the CDA and how that impacts the modern web, and what precisely a protocol should avoid doing to successfully achieve the goal of practical decentralization, Mike Masnick's 2019 paper "Protocols, not Platforms" is particular apt.

Yes, I know I've mentioned him a number of times in my comments, but there aren't too many people who are abreast of technologcal history, the legal framework surrounding the internet, and are skilled writers to condense into words the necessary clarity upon which to build an internet that works for everyone, not just the rich or few.

As a note, BlueSky was directly inspired by his paper and he now sits on the board of BlueSky. Is that antithetical to his 2019 paper? I don't think so, since commercial success of a protocol is how it has staying power: Amazon's S3 API, email's SMTP, and QUIC are all examples of protocols where everyone benefits by their ubiquity, but they had to be commercialized first, by the likes of AWS, AOL and CompuServe, and Google. BlueSky's opponent is not another protocol like ActivityPub, but rather they challenge the platform formerly known as Twitter. The very existence of a bridge between the ATmosphere and the Fediverse proves that platforms are the real enemy, and we all need to keep that in mind.

No enemies to the left.