I think a lot of the UX paradigms of Discord were built back when users' first experience was most likely a small server of friends or small communities with on

I think a lot of the UX paradigms of Discord were built back when users' first experience was most likely a small server of friends or small communities with only single or double-digit active users at a time. Early on you might join a streamer's server with a lot of users but if you are watching Twitch you probably already had experience with Discord anyway. Once you are comfortable with the interface in a simple, low volume server the big servers are less disorienting. Now with Discord serving as the platform for massive communities and interest groups outside of gaming a lot of people will have their first experience be a clusterfuck server with dozens each of channels, roles, voice channels, rules, emotes, etc. I'm not sure what the solution is but I think that's how we got here.