To be fair: since Mastodon doesn’t have full-text search (just like Twitter did) and only hashtags are indexed for search: you need them in Mastodon to actually discover toots relating to a specific topic.
I didn’t do the research, but I recon: that’s why they where introduced in Twitter in the first place.
You forgot about #annoying #nowwecanlookliketwitter #hashtag #alotofhashtags
To be fair: since Mastodon doesn’t have full-text search (just like Twitter did) and only hashtags are indexed for search: you need them in Mastodon to actually discover toots relating to a specific topic.
I didn’t do the research, but I recon: that’s why they where introduced in Twitter in the first place.
Edit: typo
Mastodon actually added full-text search, but people have to opt-in to it.