I would look at it from the jobs to be done framework. What job do you want your client to perform? Is it doing a good job of that? Some jobs: entertainment, education, passing of time, humor, news. If you ask me, I'd say nostr fails on all fronts for the general public because we lack the variety of content that engages. Now, it does work for some people, like me, and bitcoiners mainly. So if you're building a client, focus on what you want it to be good at, and do it in an innovative manner. Simply copying an incumbent wont work because they have way more creators and highly refined engagement methods they've been testing for a decade. Biggest evidence of this being the case is people who joined and stayed around for over a year and left. If you ask them, they'll probably say something something echo chamber, got bored.

Re: "stuck on finding ways to bring people who will stick around" and to @🐈 point re: "build vastly different social experiences" - I'm working on something which covers both these points, @Shawn I'll msg you direct to explore further