Is Pixelfed sawing off the branch that the Fediverse is sitting on?

Yeah, this is overblown bullshit. The fediverse already has problems with platforms not implementing the specification correctly, but making an active choice about which type of content you target is not one of them in my opinion.

I agree that ignoring the text only posts is silly, but hyperbolizing it to the level of "breaking ActivityPub" is a bit much. For me both PixelFed and TextFed make a lot of sense as individual clients. The real problem is that most of the fediverse services, PixelFed included, want to be both server and client for their users, which should be improved without a doubt.

and reply from dansup, maintainer of pixelfed: https://mastodon.social/@dansup/115661060620433309

Why would I want to see text posts in a dedicated photo sharing app? Also this seems like its trying to stir up drama like this design decision is some sort of hidden scandal.

I don't necessarily agree it's a gross violation of AP to choose not to display text-only posts, but I would definitely opt-into showing text-only posts if given the chance. I think that makes Pixelfed more useful as a regular fedi client. And I'm glad dansup is willing to go for it.

For Mastodon users, there’s no way to see that some of their audience is missing on some content.

As a Mastodon user, I already assume I'm missing some content. You develop the habit of clicking through to the original host to see all the replies pretty early on.

Note that on mastodon, you only get 4 images per post at most. So, yeah, you also miss on valid activity pub stuff, i reckon.