I was using connect or something before Sync came out and I simply did not like the interface versus the 3P app I used for Reddit. This made me not use Lemmy at all for a while - so there is / was a gap at least for me.

Also my main page takes a couple days to get all new content vs hours on R. Which I understand, but there definitely is also that gap

I agree with you, but I think there’s a level where it is true.

Like Lemmy should grow and develop based on what users are saying and not what Reddit is doing to a degree.