The answer: worker rights and employment protections.

I would bet all the pieces to make a better communication suite than discord are there. They just need to be put together into a package and marketed well.

An alternative for me is pretty much useless if it’s not an alternative for my groups. Those I use discord with. It is more likely we migrate to a corporate solution than a foss one.

Convenient, easy to use, large user base, one point registration for multiple communities, tends to simply just work.

But is it the best? Nah. And their increased monetisation drives are annoying.