They also said if mods decide not to moderate they'd be breaking the code of conduct and would be replaced, and that if even 1 mod wants the community open they'll remove all the others and open the community
I think the fediverse has reached the critical mass needed to definitely take off, no matter what happens with Reddit. It may continue, but as communities grow over here this will be a permanent alternative, and not only 'while we are mad at reddit'.
I, personally, only browsed reddit through sync. The web and official app are unbearable and I couldn't get myself to use them even if there wasn't an alternative.
I wouldn't call it worse. From what I learned, their goals of being a super-curated-exclusive community don't agree with mine, so I'm happy I signed up for a more open instance
You could do it so no matter if you tag as lewd or gore there is also a NSFW tag attached