Yes, but it does not sell them well. Look at Beeper (beeper.com) or Element One (element.io), they actively market the fact, that you can use whatsapp or signal or telegram with them. Using matrix is nearly an afterthought, it's more like using pidgin or trillian back in the day. And I think it's clever because it lets me switch away from whatsapp etc, but I don't have to bring all my friends over at once.
And, once I am on board, I can start to look into the features provided by matrix. People don't switch to a protocol, I think, they want to leave a service or provider. And yes, you are still part of whatever walled garden you choose to use, but whatsapp can run on an old phone and never touch my new phone, never getting the data on that device.
XMPP is decentralized in practice (as opposed to Matrix, which is decentralized in theory, with everyone using the same client on the same server using the sole available server implementation). There are hundreds of public servers and dozens of clients. Nobody runs marketing campaigns.
Judging by the state of most transports, actual long-term interest in that feature is limited. I don’t know if Matrix does something in a sufficiently different way for bridges (apart from ICQ) to be actively used.
Commercial services, by necessity, try to differentiate themselves. That prevents full interoperability.
Beeper seemed cool but trying to find out more it just put me on a waitlist. Element One is extremely limited in bridges. Element Home seems better in that regard but still doesn't have a major one for me Google Chat/Hangouts. Neither seems clear on if I can use my personal domain while they host and manage the homeserver+bridges. Element One mentions subdomains and beeper mentions self hosting but neither seem to comment on personal domains which seem a natural fit to use for a federated service.
I've been so excited for Beeper since the beginning of the year but just like you, I'm on the waitlist and have been for almost 10 months now.
I'm dying to try it, and if it functions how they've described it only makes me want it more. A few weeks back I got an itch and started watching any videos online and came across a few from the founder and their main developer (the one developing all the matrix bridges that I believe even Element One is using? maybe?).
For someone in my situation, if it works its priceless and if they wanted 3x or 4x the monthly fee I'd still be more than okay with it. Hell, I'd pay extra just for early access. I've always struggled to keep up with my communication and a big one for me is iMessage. But aside from that everything else I use for family (WhatsApp,Telegram,FBMessenger), work (Skype,Slack), and friends (iMessage,Discord) is stressful for me everyday switching between all the apps when looking for something, remembering who I need to respond to, switching to phone (I don't use Mac, so iMessage only when I'm actually on my phone which is not often).
