Agreed, having discussion is what makes reddit and lemmy unique. Libreddit, while the interface is clean, is more like a reddit-powered rss feed.

Absolutely, have a code based invitation would be more privacy focused.

Doing registration form with manual approval is a good first step. My 2 cents is you could also implementing an invite based registration where users are allowed to invite their trusted friends.

Similar to how reputable private trackers works. There is form registration, interview, or invite from existing members. If existing member invites too many leechers, the current member will get a warning and ban eventually. This system is mostly working for private trackers so far.

It starts as an alternative to Mumble for gamers to communicate. I can see it is easier to setup compare to Mumble and free. It is very optimized despite using Electron. Feature wise, it is also very complete and customizable.

It eventually grew to what it is today.