I'd suggest not being afraid to have two accounts -- join one that's more niche where the local instance community might be interesting and join one of the main

I'd suggest not being afraid to have two accounts -- join one that's more niche where the local instance community might be interesting and join one of the main/large ones. It's easy enough to sync up follows. Some small ones block the large ones (for their moderation policies), so having the small account will let you follow anyone, and the large can be a hedge if the smaller one becomes unstable