I mostly use the Boost App, even with reddit before the purge, so my feedback and comparison will mostly be based on that app.
I would like to customize the post and comment layouts. The instance name, the age of the post, and the username of the author are all smooshed into one line. I prefer these 3 things on there own lines, above the post picture or main body if it's text only, along with the title above the main body or text. Leaving the link below the picture or main body is fine, with the buttons. I like the layout of the buttons on the posts.
I like how Interstellar has full height images on default. Piefed on the browser cuts off images, and I have to click on them to see in full. Boost also has an option to preview more text words in the body of a post, a scalable slider from 0 to 100; I have it set at max at 100 so that I can read long text posts without clicking on them, Just keep on scrolling while reading. The max of 100 doesn't show everything in very wordy posts, but I can see majority of posts in full just okay. What I'm getting at is, I really like this feature and wish more apps had it.
The 3-dot contextual button needs more functionality in the Interstellar App (Things in the parentheses are more contextual options when clicked):
-Report Post
-Block options (community, user, instance, web link)
-Mute options (community, user, instance, web link)
-Share options (link inside the post, post's link, cross-post to another instance, share title+link)
-Copy options (link inside post, comments, markdown formatted link for lemmy/piefed, title of post, username)
In the comments, I prefer highlighting user names vs using icons that take up more space. Interstellar uses a blue "OP" icon to show the author in the comment section, and a green leaf icon for new accounts. Boost highlights the username with a set colour. Also, your own comments are highlighted in a different set colour. Boost doesn't identify new accounts though, a missing feature I like.
Boost also has an option to highlight new comments, in a post that I have visited before, in a lighter grey background colour. I think this requires the device storage to remember your visit to a post, which is fine by me. Sometimes posts do pop up again, and seeing the new comments easily is nice.
Boost has options to filter and mute things without an account, using the device to store these instead of an account on a server. The best type of block is the kind that is not detectable by an offending party, either an user on the platform or even an abusive moderator or admin. One beauty of using a third party is to have greater control of this. Mute is the same as block but it's purposely not associated with an account. I would like more apps, including Interstellar to have these options:
Muting options
-Muted communities
-Muted users
-Muted Instances
-Muted words
-Muted web links (Boost does not have this functionality; for example I do not want to see posts with nytimes.com linked articles)
Blocking options (Same as muting but these are saved to your account)
-Blocked communities
-Blocked users
-Blocked Instances
-Blocked words
-Blocked web links (I don't think lemmy supports this, and not sure if Piefed has it too, but saw something with feeds base on links I think, but I'm still learning)
Lastly, I would like to have tagging user options. I have a bad memory and cannot remember who is who, especially online with thousands or hundreds of thousands of users when I was on on reddit. Voyager App has the best version of this, because it allows for picking a colour (red for red flag people, or green for good people, etc.)
Sorry for the long post, and no worries if you do not like them, they are my preferences I like or would like to see. Cheers.
You have to be asleep to believe it, as George Carlin said.