There are many lemmy instances in the world, but currently most people are using lemmy.world. This is why everything has gotten so slow.
You don’t have to delete your lemmy.world account, but check out https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/map it’s a geo-based map of lemmy instances – explore stuff nearest you, pick one, sign up, search , subscribe and begin interacting with your favorite communities. It’s easy, free and it will be faster. Try it!
Open Collective is a funding platform unaffiliated with l.w
You’re absolutely right, I had completely misunderstood its involvement for some reason. Still, Ruud’s experience in the Fediverse running mastodon.world gives me reason to believe lemmy.world will be reliable too.