What makes you say Mastodon isn’t getting any traction? To me https://mastodon-analytics.com tells a different story.
I agree a well thought out centralised Reddit alternative could swoop in, but I’m in no hurry to look at anything other than Fediverse alternatives. I see no compelling reason to.
I have been using it on TestFlight for a while now and think it’s great. As OP says, not Apollo, not should it try try be but it definitely cones really close to having the same experience!