But then you need to research the severs, shop around, and a bunch of other shit people don’t have time for.

A bad user experience is just that: bad.

I mean sure, but it's entirely an optional communal space? Like...who cares?

The only reason there was even an opinion about Twitter was mainstream news started reporting "what was on Twitter" and it's still centralized in that way - it "felt" non-optional.

Some people enjoy "socializing in the large". For one, I already have a robust personal friend group grounded in traditional social spaces (like my local physical community, former coworkers, friends from my college days, etc) that I don't need to find a communal space online to engage in "socializing in the small". There's nothing wrong with "socializing in the small" of course but for me that's just a group chat.

Mastodon/ActivityPub is not Twitter. It's not millions of people in one stadium. It's more like dozens of rooms in a big mansion. (sorry, the analogy isn't perfect) ... You don't just walk into the room with a bunch of nazis because that place is probably going to suck to have a conversation in. Look at what the conversations and social expectations are before you jump in, and things will work out a lot better for everyone. That's not a bad user experience, that's just "socializing with fellow humans".

But it’s not diverse enough group of humans to be interesting. I don’t want to hear Linux takes all day.

That’s due to barriers to entry and lack of critical mass.

It's more than big enough for lots of us. It doesn't need to be big enough for everyone.

Just like you need to do when picking a forum to register on or a social media site to sign up to. This isn't something new.

It will also shake out, in that most people will tend towards well-known, large instances that will survive and grow exactly because they refuse to engage with the more obnoxious part of the drama.