(Ironically I just lost this chost the first time I wrote it, but that was due to my own spaghetti.)
Like, I get it, instances have different character limits, you don't want to default display every single post of The Bee Movie script. But dang, reducing my fresh reply I spent time on to less than a single line is absurd, when plenty of toots will show as much longer in the timeline, as long as they don't include line breaks. Show a comparable amount then do it, that's fine, but this is really discouraging, and something I've run into and had to work around several times now.
I understand this isn't "Mastodon"; this is theming on this particular instance (and I do generally like this instance). But it's a theming decision I've seen on several instances I've visited, I assume a platform default that may not currently be adjustable without some work. I get it, but I still find it annoying.