I want the fediverse to be a place to communicate with real people in good faith

It’s a popularity problem. Once a ‘social network’ gets big enough to spread information to a decent user base, it will be astroturfed. Building a better mousetrap and all that jazz, they will still get through, it doesn’t matter the mitigation strategy you use. The best defense is to engage with others who are respectful, and not engage with those that are clearly rage baiting, circle jerking, promoting a narrative, etc. You will never not see it, the trick is to realize it doesn’t matter at all. Just do you.