https://umm-csci.github.io/senior-seminar/seminars/spring2020/shaw.pdf

Furthermore, each instance has less users than
Twitter, and so less data to offer if they wished to monetize
it. If an instance did monetize its user’s data, Mastodon has
tools to allow easy switching of instances, so users would
have little reason to stay on an instance that did not respect
their privacy.
This creates an environment where instance owners have
strong incentives to protect users information, and users are
not locked into any particular host

So when I read this initially I do think I misunderstood that there was features to allow monetization.

...but having this Hive-focused portal is for a sense of unity and to help people connect on something that's new to them.

Ok so this does sound good but why are they wanting to come to Hive? Free speech or freedom from fiat? Yes, the price of Hive is low and activity will surly be higher once we break certain dollar levels but I think community of Hive better suited to handle freeloaders than in '17/'18 ie vote4vote guies. It just seems Hive could be incorporated more on dline and put on display for people to see how content creators in Nigeria or Venezuela can survive with blogging on hive. I mean such a key tool will help destabilize governments and free people but not before they were already starved half way to death.