what made homestuck difficult to get into for me personally was the pesterlogs, i tried to read it when i was like 13 and was put off by the walls of text because i was expecting a more traditional comic-like webcomic i guess? i just wasnt expecting so many words and i was like ehhh i dont have time for this

and then just in general i think the slowness of the first acts and kinda terrible reputation of the fandom and racism + ableism are the biggest reasons people dont get into or drop the comic