The interesting part of this, and probably why they did not just go for adopting ActivityPub or SSB (some of these people are actually involved) is because they are trying to also address some shortcomings of these protocols. For example, if a server instance is to disappear from an ActivityPub network, then you have to change your ID (just as when your e-mail provider goes offline) to register elsewhere and this is a portability issue.
So the intention seems to be to create a new protocol and services which address existing shortcomings. For the techie crowd these may not seem like major issues, but for ordinary non-tech folks who are used to registering once as a central service, and just discovering their friends easily, eliminating these problems could mean a lot. This would also help accelerate adoption by the masses, especially if they can "migrate" existing Twitter ID's into it.
"It could be described as a hybrid federated network with p2p characteristics, but it’s more descriptive to focus on the capabilities – self-authenticating identities and data – than on network topology. Our team has previously built leading decentralized web protocols and blockchain networks, and is working on synthesizing the best of what we’ve seen into something new. For some aspects, we’ll be able to use pieces that already exist, and for others, we’ll have to come up with solutions of our own."
See their post at
A Self-Authenticating Social Protocol#
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twitter 
Bluesky’s mission is to drive the evolution from platforms to protocols. The conceptual framework we've adopted for meeting this objective is the "self-authenticating protocol."
