This is your reminder...
There is no algorithm that brings posts to your timeline. The only posts you will see under your Home tab will be either people that you follow, or the boosts from people that you follow.
BOOSTING IS THE LIFE BLOOD OF MASTODON.
If you read something that is interesting, funny, thought provoking, news worthy, or beautiful, then BOOST IT.
Hitting "Favorite" lets the poster know that you liked it BUT IT DOESN'T LET ANYONE ELSE KNOW.
Keep Mastodon alive. BOOST.
@Mrfunkedude @JugglingWithEggs Starring isn’t entirely invisible. I can see that ~175 people starred your post, and my client (Mona) lets me see who they are. I don’t immediately see a way to get from a user to that user’s starred posts; is that the ”not let[ting] anyone else know” you mean?
@Fpccraig @JugglingWithEggs You have to see the post first before you know that it's been liked. You wont see the post in your home timeline unless it's from someone you follow, or someone you follow boosts someone.
The point is that boosting is a way to bring others content into peoples home tab. Hitting the favorite button does not.
Hope that clears things up. 
@Mrfunkedude @JugglingWithEggs Okay, so things work as labeled. Since I would never expect someone faving a thing to cause it to appear in my TL (what with there being a clear, separate function for that), an all-caps “THINGS AREN’T BROKEN HERE” has always struck me as an odd approach.
Never using Twitter’s native UI or the Facebook family of toxins at all has likely reduced my expectations of broken behavior.