Anything that you're not willing and able to keep financially sustained yet rely upon will likely be used against you by someone with more resources. This is why groups like Fosstodon, Beehaw, and Fedihosting Foundation stand out in these spaces. They are both transparent and financially sustainable. But most of that sustainability relies on unpaid volunteer labor.
Bluesky has no documentation for running a relay (indexing node). It doesn't seem like they intend to have any documentation on it any time soon. But it is possible to set one up yourself. I don't know anyone that has done so.
I've been using mojeek and ddg, but I've been considering setting up SearXNG on a server.
You can even question if the compiled version running on an instano is the same as the version posted to GitHub. There's no way to even check what's running on the server you don't have access to.
Trust is necessary at some level if your going to participate on any hosted or federated service as you pointed out.
By simply using the default mbin UI and clicking on two menu options for any particular post or comment.
I agree with just about everything you said, except that it won't be a technical can of worms to implement the change according to the devs.
@ericjmorey
@discuss.online