For what it counts, you don't need to deal with Mastodon if you want to use the fediverse. There's plenty of other servers available like Misskey and Pleroma, both of which require far less computer power. The only thing you need on paper is a domain name. Heck - you can even use a WordPress blog since Automattic if you just want to run a blog outbox.

Mastodon itself is a rails beast (lending credence to the tendency for the Fediverse to seem fairly monolithic), but that's hardly necessary. There's many other options out there (as much as the lead dev of Mastodon has been on a spree to try and hide this fact lately).