The difference between the Fediverse and a closed system like reddit is that it’s open and we’re privy to haphazardly implemented functionality and bad API documentation.
I work on big closed source web apps for a living; they’re just as haphazard and badly documented, it’s just all closed.
Yeah, I’d personally try out a live CD for a different distro (probably Puppy) to see how the events show up there.
I do wholeheartedly recommend changing distros though