How did ee, and sh.itjust.works grow? Because they were open. You have a short memory if you don’t remember how many instances closed, during API blackout.

I didn’t want to pick an instance that was running on a thinkpad that would get switched off when someone got bored.

Federation was confusing for many. Many used the join Lemmy website and options that were general purpose open instances that were English speaking and open were not huge. People made decisions in a short period of time and many went with world, ee, and sh.it. It isn’t baffling. It is also no shock that people set up communities where they register and may be big enough to survive. Who would create a community that disappears in 3 weeks.

You painting users as brainless sheep does nothing more than give you some feeling superiority. Maybe your fragile ego needs that. I’ll help if you need it. Congratulations, you’re so smart and clever. More so than most. Thanks for stepping on your soap box and imparting your wisdom/red hot takes upon us.