When I joined Lemmy a year ago (with another user), Lemmygrad was not my piece of cake, Lemmy.ml was too big (similar to mastodon.social), Lemmy.ca was not in my continent, and I didn't notice about beehaw. So, sopuli was the only one standing: small, from Finland and not tankie.
Creating a instance can be difficult, but it's a good way when you don't like what you're offered, and it can help other people to find their home.
symfonystation