It appears API rate limiting has effectively killed these alternatives. You essentially get nothing but “Too many requests” 429 errors.
Lemmy sadly does not have the active niche news and discussions I want. But now nothing can be read without going to Reddit. I hate Spez
The app is still using the dev API token, the dev didn't revoke the token and created a new one for the API changes.
If it's abandoned the app will continue to work.
Who gets the bill?
The developer