There are different opinions on Beehaw’s registration process. I kind of see how some people would find it dissuasive, specially after most of us are coming from Reddit. But I still think it’s very practical, at least for the time being.
Btw, this is only my opinion as a new user, I don’t know any of the admins/mods. Link to my original comment.
Beehaw is a couple years old at this point. It’s been chugging along happily in the Fediverse, curating communities and a membership base that is quite successful. (Hence the tens of thousands of new people wanting to join, and overwhelming floods of people from other instances wanting to participate in Beehaw’s carefully curated communities.)