> I haven't figured out how to view the actually useful subreddits without having access to the frontpage feeds.
Maybe I don’t understand what you mean but I follow about 3 subreddits and I just go directly to them in a browser. I don’t use their app.
Yes, that is really the problem. The landing page is just a smorgasbord of things to rile you up, distract you, draw you in, etc.
I've tried filtering it, I've tried unsubscribing to all subreddits save for a few, nothing worked.
Part of it is likely my own personality (I get bored and go on for "just a minute") but also, Reddit is designed, like all social media, to keep you engaged. Your method is best.
I actually designed a minimalist Reddit client that did exactly that, you had no homepage, it was just a search box where you typed in the subreddit name and it took you right to a minimalist interface (no big images, no names, black and white interface, no voting, etc). I've been meaning to revive it but haven't got around to it.
The nice thing for me was that I made the URL structure identical to reddit so it was as easy as swapping "reddit.com" to "reddit.qnzl.co" in a URL and it just worked.