Agree. If you defederate, then you shouldn’t be considered a goto for federation. Probably they don’t expect to be either.

I mean to the degree where the communities become unavailable/disappear, instead a limbo state like I think it is currently.

No preference for me. Either would be good, and both even better.

Agree, it is clever and John Oliver is very sexy.

Making de-federation reciprocal makes sense to me. Just to keep things clean, and to avoid unexpected/weird situations.