Not prioritizing moderation tools doesn’t make sense to me, either. A database that’s crummy (but functional) is an important issue, but one that seems like it can wait. Moderation tools cannot wait.
Community building is what Lemmy is supposed to be for, right? Any instance, regardless of its goals or ideology, needs good moderation in order to thrive (what’s considered “good moderation” will vary widely from instance to instance, and that’s fine. You know what I mean, though). Even an instance that prides itself on minimal moderation needs powerful, flexible mod tools to deal with things like spam and cp.
The less obvious technical parts are important, of course, but users don’t love or hate an instance because of the back end. They care about how it’s moderated.
Bear in mind that I know nothing about programming, moderating, etc. Take that into account when considering my comment.