This would actually be a bit more difficult. So first it would be easy for me to set up lemmy1.derproid.com, lemmy2.derproid.com, etc. but if you could just defed from *.derproid.com it’s no problem. However setting up lemmy1.com, lemmy2.com, etc. is more expensive because you would need to register and pay for each of those domains individually.

That’s not to say it’s impossible but there is a bigger barrier to it.

This alone wouldn’t help because I can just set up an instance that requires email verification (or any other kind) and automate it still since I can make infinite emails with my own domain.

This is exactly why they wouldn’t risk officially advertising here. Not enough control over the platform leads to too much risk to brand perception.

I was actually talking to someone that works in advertising and for big companies this is unlikely. Pepsi for example pays a lot for the guarntee that their product ads won’t appear near posts they don’t want them to. Since Lemmy advertising would only be through regular posts where they have no control over this, they likely wouldn’t risk the potential detriment to brand perception.

Now this can change if the potential reach of Lemmy is big enough but that size will be different for each company.

So maybe more weight should be put on comment count? Much harder to fake those.