I can see how new users can find the Fediverse confusing. "I made an account but when I go to Mastodon.social / join-lemmy.org I'm not there!"

I still get turned around trying to follow Mastodon accounts that I find outside of my feed. A click takes me to their instance, and I am not considered "logged in" there.

Are there too many hurdles for smooth, general-public adoption?