I have no idea what day I first started using lemmy, or when I made an account. I'm okay not knowing.
As for "karma", do any instances track total karma, or just per-comment? Honestly I don't give a shit if my comments do well or not, I don't live for other people's amusement.
As for other people, I can't speak for them, but I haven't seen anyone crying for lemmy to be more like reddit.
Sometimes you just have something to say but have high confidence that continuing the conversation beyond that isn't going to be productive. I like having the option to not be tempted.