[The Chuckster]

Yeah I can't really say there's a definite ""solution"" to declutter everything honestly.
Some ideas I've had include:
-Having an "on topic" general and an "off topic" general. The former being for gamer business and the latter serving as a replacement for the myriad subject channels
-General reduction of channels that don't get used enough to justify their existence
-Have a channel where people can just make threads and people can have a reddit-like experience, interacting with things they find interesting and only takes up the space of a single channel on the sidebar

All of these """solutions""" aren't perfect and if someone wants to pick them apart, honestly be my guest. It's a hard thing to balance and all input is necessary to come up with the best """"solution""""

edit: the bot pings are fine since like brahma said, they are quite easy to opt out of and kinda provide good optics in terms of who is active