I agree with everything you say here. I would say even some kind of consolidation for communities might be needed as a lot are defunct but I don’t know if that will work or is possible.

I like the ability to filter out by keywords, it makes for a much more pleasant experience

This is one if the most useful features and I think more people should customise Lemmy/Mastodon to their needs.

Yes to pickles and olives too if I have them.

Lemmy doesn’t have the niche communities and people don’t want to take the time to customise what it can do for them so get stuck in the same shit as reddit, so then they leave.