The majority of these self checkouts also rate limit you intentionally or otherwise (likely due to weight checking on the bagging area). I know I can scan a lot faster than they let me given a proper setup

Do not use anti-zionism (OK) as a guise for your antisemitism (bad)

MAUs is a decent measure, but last I know (admittedly old data) Hexbear had quite the outsized post/comment rate for their users compared to other instances. I don’t know if the higher MAU count on the other instances counterbalance that at this point, but I think that’s at least worth something in determining the size of their presence on the fediverse

I wouldn’t call hexbear faded in the slightest. You may have them hidden/blocked/whatever to that effect