Not all of them use the application process, many are just captcha plus email. Then Beehaw is failing to send confirmation emails.

The sign up process has to incorporate security to protect the Lemmy federation from spambots and other exploitation. Yeah it's a hassle, but it's not there to annoy people, rather to provide the best possible user experience. But still an application is something that can dissuade a potential user. That's why many don't use one.

Beehaw is one of the most heavily laden instances probably second only to the originating lemmy.ml instance. An overloaded instance can result in hangs and sluggish performance. Also true for one with high latency such as one located overseas.

It's true the chore of finding a good instance can dissuade some people. If you don't know any better and sign up on a bad instance it can unfairly soil your opinion of the whole Lemmy federation.

Once you find an instance you like (good ping, good performance, good admin) all the content across all the instances is there, barring any defederation. Which communities are local to the instance is not normally a selection criteria.