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?
Or, they perfectly know what they’re doing and are trying to divert people from alternatives. Hanlon’s razor does not always apply, stupid can be at either side of the stick/carrot.
In all seriousness, I agree that is quite likely the case.