Yeah you're probably right. It's also not very healthy to have a barrier like this around a community. You wouldn't want just the tech savvy users on your site -- there's lots of interesting people who don't know or care too much about computers.
Still, I'm happy Mastodon hasn't yet been overrun by the masses like Twitter. shudders
I think the way Mastodon is handling new users is pretty problematic. Not only did this lead to huge amounts of spam on the network because Eugen's instance couldn't handle the amount of new users, but also this goes against the very idea of federation.
Unpopular opinion: if finding an instance is too hard for you, maybe the federated internet just isn't for you. I see people on reddit still complaining about how difficult Mastodon is, and I'm sorry but if that's too complicated for you, just stay on reddit. Considering the level of discourse of both sites, I think it's a feature, not a bug.
I agree. Also, moderation by non-anonymous users. The best places on the internet have mods that are users themselves. That way, users aren't just encouraged to follow rules, but generally act like they want to be there.