I didn't see De Vries being replaced so soon, but you've been living under a Ric if you didn't hear about the short leash Marko was giving him. His clock started ticking ages ago and he hasn't shown anything since then.
Hm. What you call a "prompt for a circlejerk" I might call a PSA. People want the Fediverse to grow, but maybe we'd do better to cool it with the whole "I wish we were mainstream" counterjerk.