You’re vastly overestimating the knowledge, intelligence and fucks given by the vast majority of people.
The fediverse is frankly too complex and convoluted for the normies. Whichever instance manages to remove the complexity, solve the onboarding process and get the content right will win out and be the thing the normies speak of.
I already read a fair amount. 2022 I averaged something like 118 pages per day averaged out of the year. So far in 2023 I’ve averaged a more sustainable 50 pages per day.
So not being on reddit isn’t likely to influence my reading that much.