Yup, I went through all those same stages and am loving the Fediverse. I had forgotten how it felt to have to EXPLORE. To find good content, to see something that's (only mildly) outside my comfort zone, to use a tool that's still a WIP. I spent 15 years on Alien Site and it was just the same jokes, the same content, all the same topics, the endless commercialization of every word you say.
No it's not as easy to find content here. No the apps aren't as polished. But it really feel like how I felt back in the BBS or Slashdot days. I hadn't realized how miserable I was with the current state of the internet until I abandoned all the mainstream sites.