On top of elements already mentioned by others, an initial draw for me was the tenor of exchanges I was seeing on kbin. Of course the instances all interflow and I won't claim that Lemmy instances are not the same. But that was my initial experience. I like having a home base where there's some effort made to be communal and give thought out answers.
Now we're at a top 3 idea which haunts me. We have everything to make life so amazing now, but we just can't let go of these defunct paradigms that drag us down into a lower common denominator existence.
I wish more people appreciated the adventure of it all. It's not like most of the content is absolutely necessary for our daily functioning. Whether I spend an hour learning about the fediverse or looking at a stream of "rule" posts, my life won't be diminished.