I had been on Mastodon since November last year and never felt that "shouting to the void" feeling. But I understand that is not for everybody.
Microblogging sites with no algorithm like Mastodon or Calckey, require you to invest time to follow, comment and care for other people's content to make friends and followers.
But as you said, some people don't like or have time for that, and forum like site like this are better. I actually giving this a try, because or Reddit I wasn't the most engaged user either.
themadcodger