I can definitely relate to this concern, and I think it comes down to a short “setup” or “baking” phase.
When I create categories (or announcement topics about new features), I almost always want a brief window to:
- edit the About the category topic into something genuinely useful,
- double-check permissions, appearance, and structure,
- make sure the first thing people see isn’t obviously a placeholder.
Keeping things unlisted during that phase avoids notifying people about something that’s clearly not “ready” yet. Once it is, making it public feels like a deliberate “this is live now” moment rather than a half-finished reveal.
That said, I agree it can be surprising when something appears to allow replies but doesn’t show up in lists as expected. A clearer indicator that a topic is intentionally unlisted for early feedback (or an alternative like being listed but muted by default) might help reduce that confusion.