Are there instances that run modified versions of the base Lemmy software? For example, that use their own sorting algorithms, or provide users ways to block instances or specific users, etc?
Are there communities that talk about this kind of thing? Like a LemmyForInstanceOwners community? I don’t really want to trawl through GitHub for this sort of discussion.
Speed of development. It could take months for a PR to get into Lemmy core and then a new release.
Things that get into Lemmy core have to be well thought out and the core Devs have to want them in there.
Running custom code is a way to make changes without having to get their approval, and if it proves popular enough, then maybe they’ll implement it upstream.