you don't need to pay money to claim zaps. you can setup a custodial lightning wallet or a cashu wallet for free and get zaps instantly. you don't have to manage channels or anything. it's super easy.

you can configure your feed however you want, but this is going to be client specific. you can try muting words, profiles, etc. i will say that this applies to threads too. some clients handle massively large threads better than others. i like threading on Damus, Coracle, Nostrudle the best.