@cyclohexane@fediverse IMO Topical #lemmy instances work best, it helps provide an identity and focus. Visitors to the instance see a local timeline of like minded posts, like minded communities e.g https://mander.xyz/ (Nature/Sci).
There’s simply not the same tension with feeling the need to post relevant content to a local timeline as there is with Mastodon, because you are sharing directly to communities on connected instances as well.
And because of the connected nature, instances can be small e.g. a knitting instance with only 10 users, connecting to a motorsport instance connected to lemmy main.