It's mostly important for when you wanna do business in the European markets.

The alternative is to be blocked by most of Europe entirely. Happens usually to tabloid news sites as they are often in violation of anti misinformation and hate speech laws. It's also why they could sue Facebook so easily as otherwise Facebook would be non-GDRP compliant and be blocked there.

Lemmy however isn't exactly for profit, so sees much less scrutiny. This is primarily for business after all. Lemmy doesn't have ads, doesn't take users money, nor does it sell products. It also does not actively distribute illegal media either.

(it should be noted that it's usually not the EU doing the blocking but rather so websites choosing to block viewership from the EU because they'd rather do that than get sued to hell)