it does not particularly matter if it has good reason for it, it’s still not good

Hard disagree from me. People will say "to hell with reddit/twitter/whatever" but can't afford the 10 minutes to read an article or watch a youtube video on creating an account on mastodon or lemmy? The way I view it, even if the signing up process was perfectly streamlined, these people will find another excuse to leave when they get inconvenienced.