This is the response I'm wondering about, i.e. is this perspective the reason we don't hear much about it? Algos can be user chosen so that argument has always seemed dumb.

I used to use mastodon and the developer had a similar reason for not having algos. I think it's incoherent and stupid. Time ordering is an algorithm, just an extremely simple one.

It's totally different in a FOSS scenario. 

 Agreed 100%. 
Nostr devs may be afraid of a negative feedback but I think if you query most users they would be in favor of it. 
And if I had a choice of selecting/building my algo based on a certain criteria I will spend more time on Nostr and think less of what other social networks are doing. 

 I agree especially with users making their own algorithm.  💖