Alternative options to mainstream social media kinda suck...

Indeed. There just aren't suitable alternatives to the big socials out there, though people have tried again and again. I think the best thing to do is to just restrict how much we use them as to not be to anchored to them.

It's important to note that "taking back the internet" is more than just our relationships with social media, but also how we act and behave online and where we choose to talk to others. If you read some of the Yeterweb's mission statement, they make it clear that it's about how we relate ourselves to the internet. It's not just about finding replacements for social media - though a lot of people would like that very much.

To quote some of it --
"The "movement" is a digital movement of people, thousands if not
tens/hundreds of thousands, who are deciding to reduce their
participation in the core web, with some of those people choosing instead to increase their participation in the peripheral web."

The 'core web' meaning the Big Tech socials we're all familiar with, and the 'peripheral web' meaning websites like Mastadon and SpaceHey.

What this statement means, is that this is about who we choose to talk to and where on the internet we choose to do it, it's not as much about where we're going to entertain ourselves.

'Reclaiming the Internet' isn't about nostalgia baiting ourselves into the past, but to simply foster environments online where we can get away from awful people, bots and AI slop to go back to when we were just trying to chill out and get away from the world.

If the content you want to watch is only on Youtube or Instagram, then this  is something you can do: You can ghost on the site instead of logging in, then keep all of your subscriptions and content that you like as bookmarks, or save images on your device istead of an account. You can even use frontends or RSS feeds, but that would require a deeper conversation about what you're looking for.

For now, It's best not to look for an 'All-in-one' solution that socials provide, there just isn't the market for that right now (If ever).

I think you just need to hold out. Keep posting links to artwork and stuff here and gradually people will shift towards alternatives. I've already seen a rising interest in physical media beyond just the aesthetic because people are getting tired of subscription based platforms like spotify and netflix.

The west is craving a break from the constant stream of stimulus and will eventually move to the alternatives. It's our job to create cool shit so that when they do move away from the mainstream we have something enticing to offer

alternative social media platforms are at an impasse given that they have to appeal to the power users of the web who understand the flaws in the design of the modern web and despite that, they only make up a small fraction of the population anyways. most people straight up dont care. 2/3rd of the profiles on here blast you with sketchy trackers with zero regard for you.

to these people, these flaws are agiven. your data being sold off is in some part the appeal for these people - you admit it yourself. the fact that there's a million sweatshop content farm workers designed to make you angry, makes me spend more time on it. thats a good thing, right?

eventually, these platforms are doomed to only the apathetic drifters or perpetually cognizant. neither making for an appealing showcase if you just want to share your origami creations or keep up with the basebell.

i think the best way spacehey could mitigate this is by encouraging users to coagulate socially more than it does now. rather than to gawk at eachothers profiles ripped from the first page of layouts. as well as locking down its interactions with the modern web. unfortunately, it's limited by imitating myspace, thus has little control over changing how users interact with the actual site. so in that respect, i agree with your last line.