Well, when it comes to Matrix, they can't really "compromise" in a way that other platforms may be able to, as their protocol is designed to be as private and secure as possible first, then the features come later.
While "nobody cares about privacy" and features are king, I personally have a lot of respect for the Matrix developers for sticking true to their vision instead of compromising for the sake of adoption. Matrix and Element DO want to be feature-rich, but they will only accept things if they work with their principles.
Furthermore, the Matrix team aren't the ones "complaining" about adoption, they're actually quite happy with how much adoption there is - it isn't insignificant as there's over 80 million known accounts, which is much bigger than the ActivityPub social media platforms, and many people use Matrix independently which they can't track.