You're just being obtuse if you think that there's no confusion for the majority.
The absolute vast majority aren't techies, they aren't open to learning and they have been used to centralised simplicity.
Just trying to explain home instances, federation and defederation is more than enough to lose the interest and understanding of a vast majority.
Now the barriers do lend themselves to an entirely different feeling and community base. Whether that's good or bad is down to personal taste. But Lemmy isn't going to compete with reddit until the process is streamlined and the thinking required is mostly removed.
Mildly infuriating my arse.
The only future outcomes are wholly and completely infuriated to the very core of your being if the ex escalates past phone harassment to real life.
Or
The feeling of smug self satisfaction of dodging the fucking firing squad when this person leaves your life without further fuss.