I for one have stopped posting any content to lemmy.ml communities.
Ah, they do it now? When I signed up there (~3y ago) there was no such thing.
Anyway, it’s still a problem because most users interacting with .ml content are from other instances.
3 years ago were there any other instances with traction? Agreed on your second point.
Lemmygrad.ml is 5 years old, and hexbear.net is 4 years old.