It was spun out from the group behind the Discord that was very active when /r/CTH was shut down. I'd say Hexbear is very different from what /r/CTH was back in the day. You could be a succdem and generally feel at home on CTH, Hexbear tends towards full on ML.
(I say this as a commie who has been on hexbear since day 1)
Same here. I can actually see the Kbin communities when I search, but it is showing no content. Not sure what it looks like from the Kbin side.