Thanks for the reply, Fiatjaf. 

I’m somewhat new in this space so I’m trying to figure out some of the mechanics. Indulge me - if you will - few more curiosities:

If users flock to popular relays to achieve maximal reach, and operators can be coerced, then doesn’t that obfuscate decentralization?

I’m finding that relay discovery is a barrier  of entry to Nostr from a user perspective (not a dev, if that wasn’t already obvious). Do you have any suggestions for us plebs who want to filter relays by area of interest?