Like friends!

That's how social media like this works. It was the same on Reddit but the user base was larger so it would be a little more difficult to notice. A very small percentage of users actually post and since we're already a pretty small community you'll notice the same people more easily.

I don't pay much attention to user names so I haven't noticed

Yep. Lemmy isn't that big and it is generally the case that an online space is like an iceberg, with only some of the users seen a lot.

there are dozens of us

I'm everywhere!

I swear there is one dude who is like a frequent news reporter, I see his name nearly all of the time around the instances. But yeah there seems to be just a handful of people who represent the minority that just chat away.

I have no idea why you are talking about