If anything, I'm finding some people who left are coming back. They say they've missed the community they built up over time. That other places just aren't like Twitter/X.
What I suggest is to filter the heck out of your timeline to suit you. That way you limit the chaos and are able to connect with folks around topics that matter. The open timeline is not for me at all. I have a nice little timeline that allows me to get the best of being on the platform I've curated for the last 17 years.
At the end of the day social media should work for us. If it doesn't then there is no obligation to be there.
I am unlikely to go back whilst Musk is running it. I want nothing to do with him.
Mastodon is nice, but it will lack some of the features. I'd like to see the Hive microblogging options improve. InLeo can do short videos now, but that and Waves are limited..
I think threads and waves not being individual posts is what puts me off. I like how a buzz on @dbuzz shows up on my "All Posts" tab. In that way, the body of content I create can be seen in one place. Which I find helpful and sometimes is a fun walk down memory lane.