I had this same problem. I kept changing it in my instance setting on the website and pulling my hair out that it didn’t take.
I eventually found there was a separate setting in my app. Not intuitive but I got there.
Look for the alternate settings. Mine wasn’t even in the main client settings, it was the per instance setting, but in the client.
At first, absolutely. Very frustrating, kept feeling the pull back you-know-where. But then after a while, it became kind of a zen thing, if i'm using that word properly? It gives me time to breath a bit, rather than just doom scrolling at an increasing rate.
Maybe kind of part of the Lemmy Ritual? Maybe I'm strange.