Thank you for sharing, that was really interesting and great to hear more external points of view about the fediverse!
The "hard to use" idea really hits home. Following someone not on your server is Nintendo Friend Code levels of difficult. Yeah, it's not convoluted, but it's so many manual steps. Some apps do a good job of alleviating this but it there are so many and it's not clear what the differences are.
The culture clash one is very interesting. I already knew that people were gatekeeping, but the idea that people missed the algorithm and that people were too serious on here was a surprise.
The major reason I'm on here is because there's no algorithm - it made me feel like I was constantly being baited for engagement instead of having something interesting shared with me. It's almost drug like - like content was tailored to drive that dopamine rush. As for seriousness, yeah I see more in depth conversation, but also lots of jokes. But for me the difference is the engagement. Twitter felt like "LOOK AT ME, AREN'T I FUNNY, LIKE AND RETWEET!", but there was no banter, just people screaming memes into a void. The fediverse feels like more conversation, like random friends in a chatroom.
I don't really know where I'm going here, but thanks for the thought provoking write up!