It does thankfully have a functioning non-algorithmic feed that only shows who you've followed, which I feel is the only way to maintain sanity on any of these platforms.
I imagine myself switching over to that pretty quickly if I do stick with the platform (I also use YouTube that way) but that doesn't address the discovery problem.
It's just really sad that you give people a platform to say whatever they want to the world and most people seem to have little to say beyond "here's what made me unhappy today"...
The real problem is the expectation of immediate discovery. People have gotten used to "give me something new now", and the algorithm complies but then quality is low.
Slow, organic discovery is where it's at. Seed your feed by following people you already know, then slowly add other people you come across. If your feed is half empty for weeks, that's a feature, not a bug.
