Friendica and GNU Social/StatusNet date back to 2010. That’s nearly 15 years ago. Diaspora is also from around the same era, which IIRC was aiming to be something more like a decentralized Facebook (with groups and stuff) rather than just status updates like Twitter.
And then let me guess… Of course the QA testers get the blame, when in reality it’s either management or marketing that wanted to pushe the app out.