Thanks! I thought the same and I was excited to see how users responded to a masonry layout. I understand that it isn't everyone's preference, but I enjoy it for certain communities (e.g. memes).
I'm not against contributing to the lemmy-ui but there is definitely less red tape by building it independently. I can build quicker, make more creative decisions, and ultimately give users the option to use Phantom vs. the default (or another front-end)