hexbear has existed and been building their userbase for 3 years, but during that time their codebase diverged greatly from mainline lemmy to include in-house tweaks and features which made it not possible to federate, and it's only within the past month that they got everything compatible
honestly it's probably a minor part of the decision. IMO the admins on world just seem like they wanna have the final say on things and felt threatened by the potential influence of a larger instance. If hexbear were as small as lemmygrad or newer than world, it probably wouldn't have been a big deal for them.
but yes, I'll read books on my computer and then get a physical copy if I like it. I tell myself I get them so I can re-read them or lend them out, but I never do lol.
hexbear has existed and been building their userbase for 3 years, but during that time their codebase diverged greatly from mainline lemmy to include in-house tweaks and features which made it not possible to federate, and it's only within the past month that they got everything compatible