I def use Reddit a lot less than I used to, but I caved and installed the official app. But now I use it sparingly because it such a shitty experience.
To be honest I tried to go the federated universe route and I just could not get past the federated gates before I found a home. I tried to join a beehaw instance and got denied access for some reason. Felt like an orphan ever since, especially since google reddit seems to be the only way to get good answers out of Google. I hope it does get more user friendly as there are people of all expertise that may not even be able to get into a federated group.
I pay $4/mo for Narwhal 2 and it's pretty great. (I used to use the original Narwhal before the subscription pricing which they had to axe.)