I get the idea of instances, like you can make your own and this is good for privacy. But some lemmy instances are much more popular and this in fact makes it another Reddit. If there are separate instances for niche topics, why not make it another community inside a larger instance?
That’s especially a problem since people absolutely don’t want to see ads, they don’t like the idea of a coin/reward system, and generally don’t contribute (less than 1 out of 20 ppl donate, and that’s being generous)