In addition, who decides “importance”? Currently importance seems very tied to profitability, and knowledge is often not profitable.

Microsoft bought Bungie and that gave us Halo. Valve has bought a number of studios that went on to produce great games. Those are more the exceptions than the rule though, and I agree it usually goes poorly.

It may never really “die”. Digg still exists, MySpace still exists, aol still exists. It will just slowly wither, the user base will get worse and worse, and its value as a resource will diminish. It’s not about reddit anymore, its about getting good people to come here.

A lake doesn’t empty in a day even after the dam bursts. This will take time, but they lost a sizeable chunk of their mods and content creators, the users follow the content they like. Lemmy has grown to a point now where it is starting to get noticed and the press around reddit continues to get worse. Stay here, keep making content, keep telling others how to join. This can happen.