https://fedi-search.com/ which just adds the site parameters for different popular instances for the major search engines is probably the closest we have.
Marginalia.nu at least indexes the small web, but to my knowledge doesn't really index the fedi yet.
The web instances work pretty well, that's a shame the iOS app didn't work for you. I'm only a consumer not a producer of video content so I interact with a fedi microblogging platform instead of having an account on a peertube platform itself. The Android app seemed okay but following users with RSS and interacting via my microblogging account, as well as directly checking my favorite platforms' sites occasionally for serendipity seems to work the best for me.
I'm sure with the fundraising blitz the apps will get better too this year.
https://theindiebeat.fm/ - in many ways a successor to RadioFreeFedi that plays a variety of channels of Fedi indie artists. Plays opted in artists hosted on Bandwagon.
Outside getting people to join a fedi platform, Matrix instance, or Signal, all a non-trivial ask, you could see if they're on Discord or WhatsApp already, which while neither is great at least its a step away. You could do a simple SMS group, if you are okay with the privacy risks - almost everyone still had a phone number.
Post mail surprisingly is still a thing too if you are okay with delayed messages and there being cost.
I predict it'll go Meta and have fake accounts to keep engagement up plus a "AI matchmaker" assistant that will tell you its "advice" on the situation, mostly to get you to add more personal information.
The company is probably already using user data to build gay-interest advertising models for capitalism and gay-dar models for tyrants, but this policy will let them more openly sell that data.
Only thing not really mentioned in the other comments are Pixelfed and PeerTube. Again you gotta make genuine stuff not ads but if you put at least some effort in the videos and post semi regularly (and ideally use your own instance) you'll be top in whatever niche you choose to highlight your business with. I can't say the garden tending would make great business sense (it won't bring you many new customers) but if the work you do is your passion, its another outlet to share it. Its also not bad to have your own (labeled) ad channel (on your instance), archives can bring nostalgia / meme material, but local only, and don't boost them.
I don't think it'd be bad to have your own threadiverse and microblogging platform instances for support and slice of life type stories, but that's for interacting with existing customers and fans, not for gaining new ones. I'd caution interacting outside of your instance in that space unless pinged / mentioned directly, even more carefully than you would in other socials.
You can always just subscribe to your favorite creators via RSS instead of relying on their subscription tools. It does kill some discovery potential but its not like you still don't get recommendations when going to the video.
Not reviewed in this eval: