I love your suggestions.

When I started, active channels in the sidebar are flying past faster than I can click on them.

The initial sync is overwhelming - I saw someone compare the channels jumping up and down to a flock of excited swallows, which I found beautiful - and there is work or at least discussion going on to address this.

I think it's a side effect of the UI ordering channels by most active so although there are no metrics displayed, the channels at the top of the list should be the most active ones.

If you use patchbay instead of patchwork then when you click on a channel it opens in a new tab which makes it easier to inspect without losing your place. If you are comfortable installing from source code then this might be an alternative - https://github.com/ssbc/patchbay

I was lucky in that kind people responded to my initial posts and by following them I was able to find other good people and interesting discussions.

There is however an implied commitment and/or judgement in following people which can be offputting - and calling mutual follows "friends" in the UI exacerbates this. It takes an initial leap of faith and a willingness to be wrong :)

At the moment, the majority of people here are kind, conscientious and courteous and I hope that this compensates for the absence of some features that might make it easier to navigate the social space.