My first account on the fediverse was on Beehaw and I was happy with it, but defederating from two of the largest instances gave me a reason to find a new instance. Personally I understand and respect the decision -that is the point of the fediverse afterall.
They had a lot of good communities that will not be cut off from the fastest growing instances which will make things tough to rebuild I think.
Sad to see, but in the end it will hurt them more than the rest of the fediverse.
things like this, especially right now, are what will limit the appeal of lemmy and the fediverse in general sadly. People no longer have access to communities they like randomly due to the decision of one person at the top… almost like why people were trying to leave reddit in the first place