It's easy (and fun!) to dunk on Parler's architecture, but it's important to remember that no single person could design any of today's massive scale web properties, which are mind bogglingly complicated and the work of very large teams with niche skills. \\

One of the hardest things that I have had to learn as an engineer and technologist is that I will never understand even a fraction of how things work in my own industry. This is why abstraction and teamwork is so critical to overall success at massive scale.

P.S. several people have brought up that architecture often has little to do with business outcome, especially in the early days. This is a tangentially related point to my statement above, but one I wholeheartedly agree with. \\

In summary: a) hyper-optimizing an architecture before it's needed is a recipe for business failure. b) armchair quarterbacking how to hyperscale an entire site is a good indication that one has never hyperscaled.