You said yourself that Beehaw is one of the largest communities. They aren’t struggling for users, despite stricter rules and de-federation.

The pond is very small; prior to last month it was a puddle. That bar isn’t exactly high. Beehaw definitely aren’t seeing the growth that .world is today (there’s been a 40% increase in users here today alone), and I don’t doubt a large portion of that is that fewer people are directing users their way due to the defederation.

Beehaw users love it and are very supportive of the decision. The outrage seems to be entirely generated by people who aren’t members of that community

I’m not sure we are reading the same Beehaw defederation post. The top comments on the post that got linked earlier in this thread are all native Beehaw accounts either expressing frustration or saying they will leave for other instances. Judging by the replies they aren’t in the majority, but it is still a large portion of them.

EDIT: my understanding of the Lemmy UI was flawed and I was wrong. The above commenter is correct here.

but don’t pretend it’s the responsibility of Beehaw to pander to non-members.

I’m not pretending its their responsibility. Its not. They don’t owe anyone anything. I can still call them out for what I perceive as shooting themselves in the foot. Explain their motivations all you want, I understand what the Beehaw admins are trying to say, but I disagree with them and personally think this will have a longer-term negative effect on their platform than the trolls will.