This kind of thing is what kept me off of Reddit all these years. People would say "you just need to find the right subs", but any of the ones in topics I was interested in were all like that, and I was never interested in using Reddit just to use Reddit. Reddit is what Reddit is, and there is no finding "the right sub" if that metaculture is what you don't like about it.
I don't disagree. There's a few subs that are (were) distinctly different, like /r/askhistorians, but most mods don't put in the effort to cultivate a distinct community so it trends towards the metaculture. The few subs that do (did) have their own distinct culture were often pretty great though.
