If you recall reddits growth many of their communities evolved as offshoots of a single generic community. This made it easier for people to see discussions they normally would not get involved in, and once the posts in a similar category reached critical mass it moved to a sub Reddit.
I think people are recreating their niche communities here but they are floundering since the user base is still pretty small. Maybe it’s best to post to the “big” communities until the time is right to move to smaller, targeted communities?
This is definitely a thing. I don’t like making a comment or post that has already been made 80 times, and I’m used to that being the case. Once I get used to the fact that I might be the first one to post something (and possibly the only one who wants to, lol), I will probably get used to posting regularly.