I would say that Reddit’s problems are enhanced by complicit admins. I feel that Lemmy instances can get just as bad as any subreddit power tripping mods can be. The good news though is that users have much more power to start a fresh instance and get it popular as the main name of the instance before the @ can stay the same. This is a big deal compared to Reddit imo, as the ability to hold the name of the community gives a lot more leverage over legitimacy. Take r/manga for instance, I believe most of the mods over there are now inactive. Another head mod has not come in to fill the void, and the subreddit has not posted things like applications for new mods. The userbase feels stuck to that subreddit due to how impactful the name is in attracting users to the community. Sure can offshoot can slowly grow in popularity, but it may be missed by the people that stop their search after typing in ‘manga’ to the search bar.

TL;DR Lemmy has it’s issues, but it is much harder for any one instance’s mods to be overly harsh on their rules as the risk of users jumping to a new instance with the same name is relatively low.