So far Lemmy is snappier than Reddit is in it's current state which is hilarious. There's some QOL stuff we'll need like a proper mobile app (Mlem is making serious progress) but even on iPhone adding the page as a Home Screen shortcut works really well -it even hides the navigation bar and feels like an app. (How come other sites aren't like this?? Is it built to be a web app?)

The communities are gaining traction. I started star_wars and hopefully that can be a friendly place for nerd stuff.

When it comes to growth there are major pros and cons. Right now Reddit's biggest attraction to me is finding historical posts for very specific information. I think we all add Reddit to the end of our google searches for various reasons, not using that feature is a major loss and there's no way to make up for that without years/decades of engagement. However the small community feel is really nice, feels like moving from a big city to a growing small down in the burbs. That's part of the reason I like federated instances because Lemmy can be as big or small as you'd like. The more popular it gets however, the more it attracts low grade content and influencers which is a big turn off for me. Right now is a precious time so don't take it for granted :)