> Twitter has only ever been a niche. An influential niche, popular with journalists and celebrities, but a niche nonetheless.

This is the key. Elon has been in this niche and can't see it from the outside, from the viewpoint of the Regular People who only hear about Twitter on the news but never actually go to the site.

Same with journalists and "journalists" who create "news" about some two follower default profile picture account with a hot-take on Twitter, pretending that it's the view of some larger crowd just because it was said on Twitter.

Twitter lacks what IRC had decades ago and Discord/Telegram have, a way to moderate who can see your message within a group. Currently it's just shouting to the void (with hashtags).