I have also been searching for a microblogging instance that doesn’t have so many random blocks. It seems most instances block more liberally than even the more closed off Lemmy instances. Due to the sheer size of mastodon and number of other services, it kind of makes sense. I’m definitely getting paralysis-by-analysis trying to choose, though. It might help to consider newer forks like iceshrimp and sharkey, too, even just for their functionality. Or maybe that will make choosing harder? Lol

But still, like I said, I haven’t landed on anything in particular. It just seems more segmented, whereas with Lemmy, the biggest instances have pretty much identical front pages. I fear missing out on something too much…

Sorry if I’m kind of rambling and not really any help. Your post just reflected my experience of trying to find something. Hopefully we’ll get there!