To me the end result of this shifting landscape is something which has the attributes of Matrix. Matrix may have issues, but it's architecture and implementation is very resistant to bad actors.

You can fork the server code and the server instances of matrix servers and have it work with existing servers and clients. Without this capability it is a matter of time until bad actors kill it and everyone moves to the next thing. The problem is that "trust" is not enough.

You trusting Signal operators more than Whatsapp operators does not fix the problem that we cannot run these services on trust.