But my big realization today is that I don't have to understand all that to get started!
Love that! Yeah, the lack of federation on kbin.social while the dev prepares the server has been a gift and a curse. It's definitely allowing native magazines here to thrive, but it does feel a bit hollow like subreddits started to.
If you want to dip your toes into the full breadth of the fediverse from the safety of a kbin (reddit-style) app, the fedia.io instance is fully functioning and federated. You can browse content from all around the fediverse, including what I imagine may be larger, more active forums currently for anime and news on instances like lemmy.ml (careful, they're under load too), lemmy.one, beehaw.org, and of course fedia.io itself.
With OAuth from Github, Google, and FB available to kbin logins, I'm sure SiWE is doable. Might just take a chat with the dev once things calm down and we're still nascent. That'd be a huge win.