Sadly yes, the fediverse is small and smaller communities are dead enough that you practically have to engage /r/all if you want enough content to keep you preoccupied on a day-to-day basis. Though being “brigaded” even happened on Reddit, though less often.

I’m childfree myself and it feels like everyone brigading is proving the point about why we need a community to vent, but sometimes I admit if I see a sublemmy circlejerking too much (any Linux worshipping/big tech hating one) I’m not afraid to leave comments pushing back.