You can run your own relay, though:

https://whtwnd.com/bnewbold.net/entries/Notes%20on%20Running%20a%20Full-Network%20atproto%20Relay%20(July%202024)

I do prefer Activitypub overall, and it's certainly more mature, but any efforts towards decentralization should be encouraged/celebrated.

They've followed through on their promises so far, and you can actually self-host pretty much the whole stack today:

https://alice.bsky.sh/post/3laega7icmi2q

I'd perfer for mastodon to take off personally, but really at this point both are good options and worlds better than twitter.

I'd wager this is in response to the campaign going around to block every blue checkmark. Elon can't let his crowd of sycophants feel like they're being ignored.