There is that trope about how porn tends to dictate technological advancement. Probably will have some sway in this whole debacle. That said, not being as big as reddit is kind of nice. The best online communities are always smaller.
Bandwidth is the issue, and server space. I wonder, can Lemmy servers be setup where say, someone runs an ass appreciation server. That server, when people post, sends the image to redgifs?
Then the server space issue is mute and porn, or even erotic art, etc can thrive
I think this is where tildes.net is being smart with text only, saves massive on server costs and also is safer to run for the owners with less moderation needed due to no chance of any illegal porn being uploaded