Do people actually like all of the overdesigned clutter to the point where it makes them not want to switch sites?
To me, the stripped down clarity on Lemmy is a feature. I remember back in the day when people flocked to Facebook from MySpace, in large part because they were sick of eye gouging customized pages and just wanted a simple, consistent interface. The content, not the buttons to click on it are the draw right?
Idk, customized accents and images/identity is an accessibility thing for a lot of people, helps them have a sense of being where they’re intending to be & not lost in the content soup, which I do think a lot of decentralized projects do fall a little flat. It’s a tough line to toe!
(edit: i think i maybe misunderstood some here, but imo lemmy’s ui could use a little more clarity and polish, but ultimately like its lighter load visually)