The speaker highlights the historical limitations of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, which have been closed ecosystems for about a decade. This closed nature has stifled innovation and experimentation in building new client apps or conducting experiments. However, the current trend is shifting towards open-source platforms where everything from the foundation to the APIs is open. This openness is fostering a new wave of innovation and attracting attention to the protocol ecosystem. The key advantage of this open approach is that users are not locked into a single platform, allowing them to 'vote with their feet' and choose platforms that best meet their needs, unlike the traditional social media model where users were essentially captive to the platform's ecosystem.