I remember the reason why I didn’t chose Sopuli, it was one of the top contenders BTW. At that time I had no idea if that instance is good or bad, and searching in the web for the reputation of an instance wasn’t much fruitful. The reason why Sopuli fall out of the contender list was, …

1. it is run by a Finn (nothing against a Finn!!! don’t get this twisted!). Why could that be a problem, maybe in the future? It could be too opinionated towards a single persons or country, not as neutral as I hope it would be. Because it specifically mentions Finn and their rules also in their language, I would think it could be a political reason and a strong focus. I would avoid the same, if it was run by any other country and mentioned it like this! In example I’m in Germany and would avoid German instances too, especially if it was written like the Sopuli style on their description.
2. it lists Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency on their main page description, alongside with Patreon. While its not a problem trying to cover the costs of the instance, I am always a bit allergic if cryptocurrency is put in front and center. Yes, normal people do that too, but it always feels a bit off putting to me.

My goal was to find the biggest and neutral possible instance, with a description and rule set that sounded good enough, and is not blocked by many. I don’t know if ml instance was the best choice, and I don’t know if Sopuli would be better. But I had to make a choice and tried to do a safe bet, as the ml instance description sounded minimalist and focuses on Open Source and is run by their developers.