I think Reddit did a better job than you give them credit for. The may not have achieved eutopia, but they outperform all others who've tried up until this point.

Lemmy has more promise than Reddit, IMO, for well moderated news aggregation because they've seen the reddit model and can replicate it without the bondage of Reddit administration.

The problem, as it seems to me currently, is that Lemmy, specifically in the news and politics realm, lacks moderation of any quality. And, that's not necessarily a shot at moderators either. They're either new to the roll or there aren't enough of them.

They also don't have the benefit of year of users bitching and shaping the rules that govern a community, as Reddit has had.