In the recent AMA the Lemmy dev called startrek.website their favorite instance: https://lemmy.ml/comment/2372491
Can't even blame em. Started out in lemmy.world and switched to startrek.website the first time .world went out and someone explained to me how that works with being overloaded. Haven't looked back sense. The local timeline is awesome, the federation is awesome. It really showcases the benefit of a federated service. It made Lemmy such a great replacement for me, whereas before I was struggling to get into lemmy.