Now that's not true at all, we've killed Lemmy several times at this point

Not even Reddit can hug properly hosted websites anymore. Our server architecture is quite a bit more robust and flexible now than it was even just 5 or 6 years ago.

have the raw clicks to cause an issue on properly-maintained websites.

That's been true of Reddit forever now as well, I only ever remember the Hug of Death actually affecting only small time websites that probably had maybe like 3 people running it.

Links to anything else was usually just fine, barring a few exceptions because even the big boys make fuck ups too

But nowadays the bar to "properly maintained" is lower with more mature, robust and easier to use tooling

Like how Mastodon's servers were accidentally DDoSing servers to generate a link preview as the post propagated on the fediverse.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/06/mastodon_delays_fix_ddos/

That is different though, the Reddit hug of death as a concept doesn't have any malicious intent.