> Whether these providers are strictly cooperatives in the formal sense isn't what's most important here though;

I think the context of “encouraging people to switch” to a pds/solid/data coop, how they operate IS important. For two reasons:

- data coop and controlling data opens the door to a new market if we’re going to join data coops, then we may as well try to share the profits from said coop fairly. Otherwise Facebook can step in as a “data-coop” and keep-on-keeping-on

- a secondary effect is that now there is an incentive to move off facebook. If I can join my local Nowheresville.USA.town data coop and benefit directly to my community by storing data together then I am encouraged to switch to this new paradigm

That is the major undiscussed shift to me. I believe the only way out of the Big Tech dystopia is to incentivize the switch. Even if the reward is pennies. Invest in the community oil well.