I thought that 1337x.to was still the better (or next best) option, is this not the case anymore?

What is stopping you from creating lems for things that you’re passionate about? We have an opportunity here to create a true alternative to reddit, and the more cozy we make it for r/efugees, the better the transition can eventually go!

There already is a lemmy PR proposing the community auto-merge idea, it’s here: https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy-ui/issues/1113 . It’s very unlikely it can be implemented by Monday, though.