1. It's not the home page that was linked to.
2. It's constantly repeated how much privacy matters all over the site. I frankly don't understand what you are talking about...
3. The benefits should be obvious from reading the manifesto.
4. The privacy is not the only feature, obviously.
5. I don't understand whether you are saying that there is not even a "minimum level of visual design" or if it's "too complex", but a lot of work was put into it to be beautiful.
6. I haven't heard of that model, but it seems very abstract.
7. It's no wonder that nobody uses the service since nobody knows about it and it's impossible to get heard.