@tommi @michaelc this is the "workaround" I found - from self-hosting a Pixelfed instance that felt cut off from the rest of the Fediverse:
1) go to FediDB's Pixelfed page: https://fedidb.org/software/pixelfed
2) Sort instances by popularity
3) Go to the homepage of the top 10 Pixelfed instances
4) for each one, click on Explore and find cool pics
5) follow at least one account from each instance
6) wait for federation to propagate