Most people aren't very savvy with going outside normal areas, so they follow where others are. Unfortunately even after a few years Lemmy and the rest are still very niche and not mainstream at all. When Reddit first became ridiculous and the first people started looking for alternatives, Lemmy was just one of a number of potentials and ended up the bigger draw, maybe because it was the only one that could handle the sudden traffic. But this was a small part of the Reddit user base, the ones who knew enough to look around and find other places. Trying to spread the word to others on Reddit became a battle, otherwise I think we'd be a lot larger by now.

So why do people deal with how Reddit is now? I ask that a lot about other platforms, even hear it from family griping about how terrible places like Facebook or Instagram are, and yet they stay. People don't like change from familiar, even when it's difficult. And when they don't know of other places or how to transition, they'll hunker down even more and deal with it.