I feel like internet users have become so lazy, stubborn, and resistant to change. I’m pretty sure it used to be easier to get people to move to new things like new forums, Xfire, Ventrillo, IRC, ICQ, AIM… people used to try new things

Did you try these searches while logged in or anonymously? Lemmy (and probably other platforms) don’t allow searches for remote objects unless you’re logged in, this prevents abuse of server resources. The fact that you’re getting replies and you can see them and reply to them means it’s probably all working fine.