I get the idea of instances, like you can make your own and this is good for privacy. But some lemmy instances are much more popular and this in fact makes it another Reddit. If there are separate instances for niche topics, why not make it another community inside a larger instance?
In addition to what the others have said, we’ve lost some big and popular instances (Vlemmy, FMHY and others) along with the communities they had. Also, with the 2 biggest (lemmy.world and lemmy.ml) coming under attack every week, some users want to be on a smaller instance that’s under the radar.
Finally, people want to choose an instance that fits their interests/beliefs. I chose mine mainly for what they don’t allow and who they’re defederated from, but to each his own.
I chose mine because it’s one of the very few that gives the users decision making power by allowing them to vote on decisions.
What happened to vlemmy, FMHy etc?
vlemmy disappeared a few weeks ago with out a trace or any explanation. FMHY’s domain was confiscated by the government of Mali.