So I've tried the "chronological" feed, but it doesn't really solve the problem, which is that a significant number of my friends have simply disengaged from the platform. Or if they post super-infrequently, like a few times a year, that doesn't get surfaced.

FWIW, I've been very aggressive at blocking all of Facebook's advertisements as well as blocking all of those no-name meme image sources and related junk that some people just blindly reshare. I want to see actual things written by my actual friends, and I'm reaching the conclusion that they're simply not writing much of anything any more.