Let us define the architecture accurately. Federation and centralisation are structurally opposite models.
Centralisation requires a master node. All data flows up to it, and all execution commands flow down from it. If the master node is compromised or crashes, the entire network fails.
Federation is a peer-to-peer topology. Autonomous nodes opt-in to a shared protocol to exchange data, but execution authority remains strictly local. Think of the the Fediverse (Lemmy and Mastodon). When a Lemmy instance federates with the wider network, it does not surrender root access to a central server. It simply agrees to speak the same language. If the network pushes an update the local node disagrees with, the local admin severs the connection and defederates. The local node continues to function perfectly. Federation is coordinated decentralisation.
Regarding your questions on delegates:
1. You are conflating a representative with a delegate. In a hierarchical democracy, you elect a representative. You hand them a blank cheque to make decisions for you. That is executive power.
An anarchist delegate is not a politician; they are a network router. They operate on a strictly bound mandate. They do not go to a council to decide what their zone will do; they go to communicate what their zone has already decided to do. They possess zero executive authority.
2. The structural checksum against fabricated data. If a delegate goes to a regional council and fabricates data to push a personal agenda, it is the equivalent of a corrupted packet. What happens when they return to their local node with a treaty or a mandate they negotiated in bad faith? The local node simply rejects it. Recall is not a lengthy impeachment trial; it is a dropped connection. Because the delegate has no police force, no military, and no executive authority, they have absolutely no mechanism to force the local node to comply with a fabricated agreement. The physical leverage remains entirely at the base.
3. The incentive is system maintenance. You are operating under the capitalist assumption that humans only perform tasks for hierarchical power or financial profit.
Why do people take on the responsibility of a delegate? For the same reason a sysadmin takes the weekend on-call pager, or a flatmate takes out the bins. It is administrative overhead. It is a chore required to keep the shared infrastructure functioning.
In a properly architected horizontal system, these administrative roles rotate rapidly. When you strip a role of executive authority, wealth accumulation, and coercive power, the position becomes completely unappealing to sociopaths and opportunists. The lack of corrupting incentives is exactly what acts as the firewall. You are left with people simply performing routine system maintenance.
That is Jesus Christ himself serving his Jewish masters.