It doesn't feel empty to me, personally (just thought I'd be clear that this is only my opinion) but it is definitely somewhat slower than Reddit or some of the other Lemmy and Kbin instances that are out there. IMO, I think a lot of people coming to Beehaw who're acculturated to Big Social or Big Social-ish experiences are inevitably disappointed with the amount of content because it's not a massive stream of content being funneled into your feed anymore.

But I've been on the Fediverse (Mastodon, Lemmy, etc.) for about four years now and gotten used to the slower flow, that going to Reddit or some other Lemmy instances or Twitter now feels like I'm drowning or being inundated/overwhelmed with content which flows faster than I can give a due-diligence response to. Either I could say nothing, just vote, write a one-off low-effort response, get in a heated debate, or try to take the time to write something more thoughtful (and then by the time I was done with that, the moment would already have past or I'd get some smart-ass reply that would end the engagement for me). Plus there are some concessions involved in getting all that content delivered to you.

Some people like that but it's just not really for me anymore, it doesn't feel healthy. I like being able to slow down and actually talk to people, and I like that I can trust I'll see them again later. I like that I can post something and no matter whether it's popular or not, someone will engage, even if it takes time.

On the other part, I don't really understand how no downvotes is a "weird" decision; it's definitely not uncommon considering some of the subreddits I participated in on Reddit did the same thing. But in any event, Beehaw does have some posts/comments around explaining the reason for certain choices.