Corporations don’t just sit out on new technologies, and no matter how hard you try you can’t force them to. Defederating from Meta’s new project preemptively is naive, and will not do much of anything.
Protocols are going to be adopted by corporations, whether we like it or not. SMTP, LDAP, HTTP, IP and 802.11 are all examples of that. If it ends up that meta is able to destroy the fediverse simply by joining it, that is a design flaw on OUR end. Something would then clearly need to be different in order to prevent future abuse of the protocol.
FOSS is propped up by corporations. By for profit corporations. If you want to stop those corporations from killing projects, you put safety guards up to make sure that doesn’t happen. You don’t just shut them out and put your head in the sand.
I agree with OP’s title on the social side of the problem, not the technical one. If we allow them to destroy the Fediverse, then it was already lost to begin with. It’s not a matter of technology, it’s a matter of whether the key people are able to keep it out of the corporate control in the long run. If they can’t, then it was all just a matter of time.
EDIT: I don’t imply it’s a particularly useful thought. It might help with coping though if it would ever happen. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts and hope for the best!