this is probably the intended method to use mastodon, if you're trying to follow individual accounts you're just gonna suffer.
I also found actually taking time to find an instance that you vibe with (in my case, jorts.horse) really helps to keep stuff interesting in your Local timeline. As a bonus, it also furthers decentralization :)
while your Feed won't matter as it's chronological and based on your followed hashtags, as @reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com pointed out, your chosen instance will make an impact on your local feed.
It's kinda like how you can make an account on lemmy.ml and still connect to any* instance, but you'll probably still have a harder time finding non-tankies.
*if they haven't defederated, that is