it’s also the resources to keep up with communicating with the community, answer questions, maintain a positive presence

This is a fair point, and I think you came to that thoughtfully. Would that you were in charge of things instead.

Here’s my counterpoint: they aren’t obligated to stop posting on Mastodon to focus on comments on Reddit or BlueSky or whatever. They can still post wherever they want but make it clear that they will no longer respond to comments on Mastodon; I follow several accounts that do this, explicitly or implicitly. That’s not the choice they made, however.

They’re supposed to be governed by the Proton Foundation, with the mission: “Our legally binding purpose is to further the advancement of privacy, freedom, and democracy around the world.” But moves like this don’t seem to be in line with that mission, especially when you look at all the options.

They chose to leave Mastodon and reduce/restrict their online presence, and all the evidence I have seems to point to this being a political move and not merely a strategic one.

Time will tell if that’s true, but this should raise eyebrows for anyone who cares about data privacy.