Yep, I'm one of the refugees. Seems good round these parts, like early day reddit. The delayed sign-ups could be lifted maybe, to attract some people? Maybe a simple graphic explaining to new users how it all works could help convert some non-techies too?
For now, we're stuck with the current system. There are malicious people out there creating bulk accounts for spamming on any instance that doesn't have secured sign ups. Captchas are not available in lemmy 0.18, but should be back in 0.18.1. I'll look at removing the need for manual admin approval when 0.18.1 is out.