the main complaints against Matrix atm seems to be that we have made heavy weather of the migration from 1.0 to 2.0 (“either you get a slow client or a fast but incomplete client”)… or that Element has had to focus on building stuff for govts rather than irc-style communities in order to get sustainable. (see also https://gist.github.com/ara4n/190ad712965d0f06e17f508d1a45b5...). Both problems could be much worse, and we had the annual Matrix Conference a few weeks ago which was a great success (https://element.io/blog/the-matrix-conference-a-seminal-mome...), so I suspect/hope the negative sentiment will pass.
I suspect the terribly generic name "Matrix" isn't helping. Guess what's #1 in Google when you search for Matrix, IRC and Discord.
Yup, we're #3 behind the film and the hair company. Doesn't seem too bad; meanwhile Element is #1, terrifyingly, at least for my geoip.
#4 in mine, but you're not even 3rd page in my mom's phone (I stopped 3rd page, not sure when you'll show up)
Discord (which is your mainstream competitor) is #1 in both even if it's also a terribly generic name.
I couldn't be happier if you dethroned Discord.
EDIT: Element is 3rd place in my mom's phone. Quite an achievement!