Before lemmy there was mastadon. An Indian student maintained an instance called inditoot from his pocket, first on mastadon and then on pleroma. For years. The instance was supposed to be donation run student project, and it went on for a few years before being shut down for good.
It's owner revealed to me that he got exactly zero donations - from both India and abroad combined.
I have a similar tale about an NGO, which is actually doing good work on ground in India and Bangladesh, aspiring to become truly global. The owner was without any salary or donations for nearly two years before a famous politician intervened and he started getting steady donations. While raising funds for a natural disaster in Bangladesh, the owner told me that he/his NGO was no longer accepting foodgrain and water bottles in donation - he needed money to transport the stuff he already had and hardly anyone was donating money.
Indians are charitable without understanding how charity works. Their cash donations are only for their religious causes. And foreigne aid comes to India only for their (foreign) causes - which includes money for conversion of Indians.
Sure, a dedicated lemmy instance would be good to have. But who'd pay the bills, and from which money?