It seems like any platform that features link aggregation is soon overrun by bots and self-promoters trying to drive traffic, and pages and pages of link posts versus pages and pages of people talking.
Are there any lemmy instances or other defederated networks that focus on Q&A, niche communities, and people conversing, instead?
The saying is “code is law”. I.e. if the Lemmy software architecture makes it natural to post threads starting with links, then that’s what people will do. Design the software differently and it will be used differently.