Because when you click a link out of link Google or something you try to login and it says your login doesn't work. To actually view that page properly you have to copy the link go you home instance and search it again then go to the post and then you can interact with it. Some people either A. don't realize that or B. Don't understand that's how it all functions. It confused the shit out of me for the first couple days but I just didn't care enough to create a new account because my account "should" have worked there I just didn't know how to make that happen.
I feel like that's basically how sync was working for me. I can't remember my exact notification settings but probably used polling. But if I was using the app and would open a thread or refresh or something I would get a notification that I had received a message. Other than that I generally just used the emails reddit would send me about a comment reply or something. They annoyed me for the most part but I never took the time to turn them off. 😂
Personally I enjoy hearing about the reddit drama. I don't spend nearly as much time there as I did before they broke my beloved sync so I enjoy getting to read about the ongoing shenanigans over there.
My only think is it would be trivial for meta to do this with any other instance and not tell anyone it was theirs. There is nothing stopping meta from spinning up an instance and not claiming it as there while the rest of the fediverse continues to federate with them. Would still give them open access to everything and their instance wouldn't even need to be super populated to get most the information they could want.
This was the first time I personally used a relay email and I'm glad I did. I also made a mastodon account using the same email but I'm curious if I change my mind on that or not. Personally I think you did the right thing just making a whole new account. Chances are you didn't use the first account long enough for it to matter.
Agreed I haven't spent much time using Lemmy on an app but I'm hoping those can make it easier somehow atleast for mobile users.