It does explain why all the niche communities I visit have gone from quiet to abandoned.

Yeah, this is my experience with Lemmy so far: it has replaced the "all" experience for me, but all my hobby / interests subs are completely dead.

I hope it will be, and think it has the potential.

It has already replaced the "all" experience for me, and I automatically come here rather than Reddit. On the other hand, most of my engagement on reddit was with hobby/interest communities. Very few of the ones I visited on Reddit have made it across in an active way so far.

One unexpected thing is that I actually enjoy my specific instance and find myself browsing "Local" way more often than I expected.

They're not uncommon in the UK either!

Someone the other day referred to posting in niche communities as shouting into the void currently, which I thought was apt.

Due to being a Chinese learner, I have been playing a lot of Chinese developed games over the last few years. Gujian 3, in particular, makes me less sceptical about Black Myth than others are as Gujian 3 was so close to being a genuinely solid game. I just really hope they don't skimp on the translation.