I don't know, I feel like the issue (at least part of it) with Threads wasn't that it needed more time in the oven, but that it was birthed pre-shitified. Remember the steps: good to the users, then good to the advertisers, then good to themselves. Threads basically tried to skip step 1. It felt every bit as manipulative as the Facebook feed, because it effectively was.

It didn't come through feeling like a breath of fresh air from Twitter in any way except (to your point) the lack of rate limiting. But even without that, the mindset and motivation behind Threads makes it dead on arrival. It has nothing to offer except being "not Twitter", and the cold, corporate hand is very evident. Turning off the rate limiting, Twitter got those users back.

The lesson there is you have to have something the entrenched platform doesn't if you want to keep the users. Lemmy is already ahead in that department simply by having 3rd party apps.