It’s possible to turn off local community creation, image uploads, etc.
Lemmy.myserv.one doesn’t host any local content but you can easily browse the rest of the fediverse. Having a diversity of server sizes and formats is definitely a benefit of Lemmy that we should be trying to take advantage of.
Hard agree, DC sucks ass. I actually strongly prefer Baltimore, which feels much more like a real city to me. DC is so artificial and bland.