When a blocked user replies to my message I get no notification and might just see "1 more reply" or something like that but when I click it it wont load. Only when I sign out can I read it. However I believe that the blocked users can still see my messages just fine. Same with bans. I can see all posts from lemmy.ml but they can't see mine.
I much much prefer the niche community here. Much less shit to have to wade through (see: came here to say this x 100000 per post) to get to the good comments and posts
People complaining about a loss of users are the same people that will complain about performance issues next time there is a huge influx of users that stresses the infrastructure for popular instances.