I think we’re going to c) Everyone finds this place to be mostly empty (I get no engagement on things, which is dissatisfying since I like to start conersations) and the only chats in one’s feed are about how toxic it is, and so it dies the death of all twitter clones

the fundamental problem of divisiveness and toxicity is baked into the model of a microblogging platform. Yes, Musk made it worse, but the problem was always there. The solution to Twitter is not a slightly rebranded Twitter and so BlueSky is doomed.

You need to up your 'following' xount, tbh

I find engagement is far higher than Twitter for a tenth of the followers. Maybe try mixing up your content a bit?