I enjoy it. Technical growing pains aside, it actually feels like a network of communities. From another angle, I like that it feels inconsequential to block communities that I find uninteresting or too thin skinned.
Some days are slow, but thats organic and I actually prefer that more than the alternative; thoughtless, soulless reposts being cranked out by bots and upvote hoors. I legit block communities ran that way here.
Content content content. Many of the times I want to talk about something a little niche but there's no one to talk to. I have to hop back to reddit. So yeah. But it's getting better slowly
I know I am a hypocrite. I try to contribute comments, not at all intelligent, but still better than nothing. I am thinking about opening a community about something I like doing
Agreed I think the apps and custom interfaces have come a long way and are already serviceable. The real piece missing are the organically grown niche communities being active and years of content backlog to build upon. Sadly this can't easily be forced.
I'm also missing some communities (for example active financial/stock ones), but I sadly don't think I have the time to moderate one myself. So I'm in a similar situation as you and just try to comment a bit more than usual