Does federation have a bit of a learning curve? No doubt.
Is Lemmy buggy as heck? Absolutely.
But I don’t think that really justifies a lot of the comments I’m seeing in Reddit alternatives threads that it’s hard to figure out. The front page feed and sort options are very similar to Reddit. Searching for same-instance communities is not too difficult. Posting, commenting, and voting are all quite intuitive. What’s the problem?
Average internet user doesn’t understand internet
Honestly, I consider myself an above average internet user and I don’t understand internet. I do my best, but it’s all a series of tubes and magnets (how do they work?) as far as I’m concerned.
The internet is a complicated thing even decades after its widespread adoption and it’s constantly changing. I try not to be dismissive of people that don’t understand parts of it, because there’s huge parts of it I don’t get either and I grew up with it and I’m on it all the time.
don’t forget fiber optics!