so far nostr is one of the few social protocols that has actually achieved decentralization to some degree, not just in name only. in this regard it has been a wild success. noone can censor me, yet they can on bluesky and activitypub and everywhere else.

really depends on success criteria. If success is “more popular than the alternatives” then sure you can see it as a failure, but only if you care about numbers and not actual protocol outcomes.