something nobody ever told you about

Other than it being explained in big letters on the very front page of Codeberg?

Well that's just how Codeberg works. It's run by volunteers and organized as a registered association. This association strives to be very democratic about what happens to the platform, but you have to join it to gain insights and voting rights.

Of course you don't have to and most users of Codeberg don't - but you can and this makes Codeberg a lot more open and democratic than any other commercial platform.