[Wickedflickr]

I'm not sure what you mean by lacking a network effect, unless you mean they don't yet have sufficient users to draw in new ones?

I personally switched to Lemmy from Reddit after the API debacle, and I've found it to be an extremely compelling platform exactly -because it was federated. I can curate my feed from hundreds of large and small instances with nary a corporation in sight! It's self-hosting as far as the eye can see, yet it has enough interesting content and discussions to keep me coming back, without any ads or algorithm trying to manipulate me.

It feels like 90's internet full of webrings, and it's glorious.