That's the thing- you only need to have an account with one instance, and you can follow others from your "home" instance.
But I bring this up to bolster your point- Mastodon feels "clunky" because their onboarding process for new users is severely lacking, in my opinion.
It is offputting. It is intimidating. And that is a turnoff for a lot of people.
BUSY and I've been paying attention to the news less and less. I have to.