I don't think that Lemmy will "die" - e.g. technically Reddit still exists (as too do those older things that predated it - they have only the tiniest fraction of their former userbase, but they do still exist... technically) - but neither is it a sign of health that growth has plateaued and even probably shrunk a bit.

Worse yet, the Rexodus may have been the biggest & best chance for influx of "content creators", as in even if there is a second exodus from Reddit, it won't be the same type of people, and instead will be those who enjoyed the AI content for the last several months to year. Or maybe I am wrong, b/c a second opportunity is people fleeing from X, b/c of its toxicity (and in that case, them seeing the likes of hexbear.net and lemmygrad.ml will likely halt them from coming). But people coming from Reddit will more likely be one way (more technically minded, though also defensive and snarky) while mainstream from X will more likely be another (just normal people??? e.g. less likely to go into the Settings menu and find a way to get something to work, even before deciding that they want to remain here - we aren't all Arch users btw:-D).

But there is a third source of influx: people who come from those, or perhaps are already here, but who mostly lurk rather than post. This is where reducing the overall level of toxicity here will offer dividends in making this place seem more lively.

I very much want to respond to your thought about conservatives b/c I find that highly interesting, but I also need food atm so if you don't mind I will separate out these thoughts spatiotemporally:-).