While your review makes sense, it feels biased towards the viewpoint that Beaker, and the underlying hyper protocol, are commercial products in search of a market. I don't believe it is the case, the most sensible metric is not always the number of users.
Here's an answer to your question (what is one usecase that Beaker does that existing solutions can't) : Beaker is the easiest way to publish content without forfeiting control. No account to create, no giving away my data, no server to install and sleepless nights to maintain it, no need to remain always up and running for my content to be accessible. The few solutions that exist in this space still rely on some form of hackish UI, if they even have one. With Beaker all you have to do is launch it and use the microblogging app.
On thr contrary, Beaker may not be a product in the nkw usual meaning but that's because it is not an honest comparison: Beaker is a platform to help build products easily, as can be seen by the microblogging "example"
Nothing in my post assumes that Beaker is a "commercial" product, nor that it's in search of any market that's necessarily measured in dollars.
My claim is that projects like Beaker neglect to ensure that any handful of 1-100 people will ever have any desire to use it in their life over their next-best available alternatives, even for free.
When you point out that Beaker is a platform, that doesn't change my claim, it just makes my claim imply that no developer will have a desire to build on it.
Here's an answer to your question (what is one usecase that Beaker does that existing solutions can't) : Beaker is the easiest way to publish content without forfeiting control. No account to create, no giving away my data, no server to install and sleepless nights to maintain it, no need to remain always up and running for my content to be accessible. The few solutions that exist in this space still rely on some form of hackish UI, if they even have one. With Beaker all you have to do is launch it and use the microblogging app.
On thr contrary, Beaker may not be a product in the nkw usual meaning but that's because it is not an honest comparison: Beaker is a platform to help build products easily, as can be seen by the microblogging "example"