True, but if Meta (or anyone) wanted to "directly" get that data, it would be as trivial as setting up an instance on something as small as a Raspberry Pi and subscribing to a community here. We would have no way of knowing who it is or stopping them. Defederation is a tool to prevent brigading, not lurking.
If (if) Meta wanted to set a lemmy-style platform, preemptively defederating from it would be a largely symbolic gesture. Doesn't mean it's not worth doing, like I said we'll cross that bridge if and when it becomes relevant.
Things may be uh- crispy for a few hours while we get re-Federated and all the other instances whallop us with traffic. It should pass within a day.
I've also just put up an announcement in /c/Quark's