Right - I think people are willing to learn things, but only if they have an incentive to do so.

Using bigger platforms such as Twitter or Reddit took some learning, but people and content were already there, this gives people the incentive to figure out how things work.

When you sign up to something like Mastodon, you have to learn how it works, and while it is not particularly complicated at all, why put the effort into figuring out Mastodon when you can just go back to Twitter and have the content and community already there for you?