I understand your point, but when a group of ideologues has de facto control over one of/some of the largest entities on a social media platform, and bans people for ideology without warning, explanation, or recourse, this amounts to centralized control, or at the very least undue influence.
For me personally, it wouldn't be a big issue if .ml made its bend and moderation practices clear, because I could have avoided the headache when I was first using lemmy. I wouldn't choose to engage with a forum that has "no critique of any country that calls itself Communist is allowed, anywhere, ever, for any reason, or we will bar you from participating in all communities on this platform" and I'm sure a lot of others feel the same way. What's more, I bet the admin of .ml know that, too, and keep these practices opaque because they are interested in new users.
Why don't .ml users retreat to hexbear or lemmygrad, if making the moderation practices on one of the largest instances fair is so odious?