I would like to stand up for the real meaning of the word "algorithm" - there's a sorting algorithm which shows you the most recent posts, for example. Indeed, the default "hot" sort is already a more advanced algorithm which uses votes and time to show you what is likely to be "good" as decided by users. It's just not driven by AI or subtle data about how you navigate the page.

I actually think Mastodon could use a better algorithm to help old but interesting posts get a chance since I'm not checking it every minute... But how to do it in a way that doesn't suck is hard. Of course, there's an easy way to avoid it becoming a dark pattern, which is to keep it fully optional.