Sure. The problem is we're too decentralized to make enforcement practical. They can try to come for, say, lemmy.world if they want, that's totally fine. That won't get them very far with all of Lemmy though. Too many servers can be housed in places where western law cannot easily reach, and regulating just those servers located in western countries accomplishes very little.
Advantages of being structured differently.
edit for grammar
I think an additional factor is the early comment effect. Early comments get more visibility and engagement, so if you want to push your goals, you can post a comment if you get there early enough. If you don't get there quick enough and there's already hundreds or more, then there's no point in adding your own, if your goal is actually to help your political project.
Same reason I hypothesize that political extremists are more likely than other people to sort their social media posts by "new" instead of anything else.