Unpopular opinion for HN: I like recommend content. Especially with TikTok where the vast majority of content I consume (and I think most others) is generated by non-friends. Crafting the perfect list of who to follow is tough work so when the algorithms can do it I'm happy. Of course, the recommend content needs to be good and interesting to me. I suspect most people's frustration with it is the result of getting bad recommend content. Though for some people recommend content might be particular bad for you if your interests are more niche.
But I also agree that I wish you could turn recommend content off. If it's recommendations are bad, I agree it shouldn't be shoved down your throat, but also please don't force a recommend content free world on the rest of us.
The wild success of TikTok suggests you’re wrong. HN can be an echo chamber at times.
So... You're saying you like AT Protocol/Bluesky then? Because if that's what you're trying to say, your post kind of reads like you don't like it, but then what you want is exactly what they are trying to provide...
There's an earlier blog post that talks about the "algorithm marketplace" that is worth looking up.
I don't think this team "sees" any use cases for sorting feeds right now. In the current beta there are two feeds, your followers which is chronological (and the default) and "What's Hot" which is a haphazard very much placeholder timeline of the "most interacted with" posts, and I think that just means "13 likes or more, then chronological" at the moment.
It's super basic and not at all the priority for them. From all I've seen in my time in the beta, the most important use case they are working towards is "let everyone pick their own way of sorting/filtering/moderating their timeline".