Adjacent. Matrix uses a lot more resources & storage than XMPP, making XMPP a more efficient method of decentralized, self-hostable communication (both servers and clients). Having control of your own chat server will prove important with facism on the rise, so owning your own server node + E2EE will prove important—but if the system is too expensive that everyone cannot afford to run it, it isn’t radical tech.
Eastern countries don’t build all their communal events around booze but instead food. One of the many reasons I have no interest in moving back to the West.