@mmasnick I think that it's people's first impression of the site. If you come here curious to see if you can just swap out Twitter with Mastadon, then the combination of not knowing what server to choose, slowness due to the influx of people, and other small things can leave a bad first impression.
I'm willing to give it a chance and see how it grows, but I can understand people feeling underwhelmed if they came here expecting Twitter-but-without-Musk.