I’ve not yet heard any claims on or outside Lemmy that it is a Reddit clone. The model of hosting forums/communities was never unique to Reddit as far as I know.

I’m curious what you’re willing to generally apply to “Hexbear folks” (I don’t think I’ve talked to many).

And Lemmy is totally an echo chamber most of the time (based on my experience, obviously mileage may vary) but it wasn’t intended to be that way unlike almost every commercial social media platform. I would assume this distinction is why people would be less likely to be willing to admit it.