Ouch. That sounds like a pain in the arse. I joined lemmy world several days ago without issue. I joined due to the population size. I have encountered where lemmy.world has been down, slow, and hacked, in the few days I’ve been participating. So that’s not good and it lends credence to what you are experiencing.
I’ve been looking for a new instance myself due to the growing pains lemmy.world has experienced since the reddit exodus.
You are right, it makes no sense to not offer support outside of being logged into a lemmy instance. It reminds me of my internet ISP. They advertise if you need support, go to <some address.com>. Meanwhile I can’t even get onto the internet. Makes no sense.
Anyway, good luck to you. Hope to continue to see you around even if it’s on another instance.