It seems the fediverse is continuing and growing again. Line go up is probably good!
https://fediverse.observer/stats&months=50
Total users are huge now.
There are many websites out there that pull data from the fediverse. So take that with a grain of salt. But anecdotally I am seeing a small rise in people using the various platforms as each get more mature and servers somewhat stabilize.
If it's privacy you are worried about, note that several alternatives like Voyager are FOSS.
But otherwise, yeah then that leaves you with the web UI, or at most a pinned webapp, which constrains you to the standard web UI.
Unless the PyLova fork of PieFed begins offering more tweaks to the UI that you want to see. The developer team is actively soliciting suggestions and have implemented a couple of mine already - like adding downvotes next to upvote counts - so you might voice your preferences to them to see if they can address your concerns.