I had been active on Reddit for close to 15 years, and left due to the API decisions. That move feels more justified every time I bump into Reddit, from being unable to view programming questions from a work VPN, to the emails begging me to invest in their IPO, to their exec pay fiasco.
Reddit is a shell of what it was, but I think this is largely due to stepping away from it. I know several people that use it religiously, and they don't notice it as much as I do.
In a similar vein, Lemmy can have some absolutely batshit views too, and can also be incredibly toxic at times. We just don't notice it as much because we're used to it, but I bet some people new to Lemmy would see some posts/comments and think "eh, no thanks". I won't say that Lemmy is as toxic as Reddit, but the community size makes it more obvious on Reddit.