On Mastodon and #hometown, you can turn off boosts in the Home timeline by clicking the settings button at the top of the timeline. Not helpful if you're trying to find new accounts to follow, but if you're like me and want a chill timeline, it helps.

You can also turn off boosts from individuals: go to their profile and click the three dots. This is useful if an individual is a bit spammy on the boosts.

(This works on the web interface, not necessarily third party phone apps.)