The word "wiki" in federation wiki seems counter-intuitive. The wiki concept was originally a way to edit webpages fast, then do it cooperatively in a relatively painless way?
This wiki has its roots in a position paper titled Folk Memory from 1997. pdf 
This codebase was launched at Indie Web Camp on June 25, 2011. The goals of the project are clearly stated in the initial commit. github
I (Ward Cunningham) have explained the project as an invited speaker at multiple Wikimania, most recently in 2021. video
Federated wiki aspires to be something new. At once it is just a wiki and it is equally revolutionary to the point of confusing its users as to how it should be used. We've left decades of manipulative engineering behind. Our purpose is not to build a product with a massive audience to be monetized, but to provide a platform where works can last to draw the appropriate audience now and into the future.