I tried it a while ago, the content was mostly people selling either themselves or their merchandise (books, courses, schemes). My sample was not just one try, I gave it a whole week. Same faces, same sale schemes. Uninstalled, figured it wasn't for me.
I think the same is true for all social media. When you initially join, one of two things happen: 1) you find a small niche group of people who are nice and you have something in common with, the platform quickly finds its place in your mind and "Most visited" section of about:newtab OR 2) you get faced with the most generic, get-rich-quick ads/posts/rants and quickly get a sour taste for the entire platform.
Probably HN is the only place I've actually felt (1) while everything else falls into (2) after just a day or two.
Whereas for my wife, Clubhouse is in the former category. It’s interesting to see the juxtaposition between the bashing in tech circles like HN, and the use she gets out of it.
> whether they were after some sort of exclusivity.
The only thing the company ever had was (fake, forced, paid) exclusivity. Once that went away people stopped caring (except those that were/are paid to be there, of course).