My main point, really, is that the content is not that relevant most of the time. It is far more interesting to see who is talking to whom, how frequently, and for how long. This sort of data provides rich information on the target network, both the edges and the nodes. This information can be used to analyze the network and to fit people back into the network if their identifying device/ID/etc is changed. You can still match the new activity against the old activity (particularly if the old activity has ceased) and get a match on who the "new" node actually is.

The metadata masking of Pond is what I like. It makes it a much more secure system than an XMPP based IM network. Even a private XMPP server is not secure against a global passive adversary. And thats basically the important thing for me. TextSecure is fine, but it leaks too much information for me to be completely comfortable using it. Pond addresses those issues (although, unfortunately, it fails on the usability front).

Thanks for the correction.