The search paradigm on Mastodon greatly reduces the platform’s usefulness and I expect presents to many users as simply being broken rather than an intentional choice.
The @ is also being dropped and all usernames are now in the format “xXusernameXx”
My experience of Epic exclusives is that most become things that are never on my radar again, even after the exclusive period.
I take it from this increase in rates that I’m far from alone in that regard.