Increased population in lemmy.world is attributable to Redditisfun directly linking to this instance with its dying notification. Other instances may have vastly different compositions as a result.
There is a whole lot of desktop and laptop users who couldn't care less about APIs, but some of them have begun to notice that Reddit just isn't the same anymore.
I remember trying RIF way back in the day. I think before the official app was even rolled out. I can’t even tell you why or how I quit RIF as it’s been so long ago.
I personally didn’t have much of a problem with the official app, even though it could be wonky at times. I was more of a lurker and not a mod nor any kind of power user or anything. I left Reddit more on the principle of not wanting to support a greedy company anymore.