There are different opinions on Beehaw’s registration process. I kind of see how some people would find it dissuasive, specially after most of us are coming from Reddit. But I still think it’s very practical, at least for the time being.
Btw, this is only my opinion as a new user, I don’t know any of the admins/mods. Link to my original comment.
Beehaw got overloaded. They temporarily defederated from 2 instances to slow the flood. Admins from all 3 are working together to get moderation (and Beehaw) up to speed.
People are being far too dramatic about a simple technical problem.