[…] and since I can’t turn the ratings or collections, it’s not actually what I am asking for at all […]
But you can use the “New projects” and “Devlogs” tabs to filter. While it’s maybe not exactly what you’ve been asking for, from what I’m able to understand from your post, it seems like it is just two additional clicks away from what you asked for - or 1 additional click if you use bookmarks. That way you also wouldn’t have to look at any disturbing cover images.
I’m also not getting (let’s call them) bell notifications for anything that ends up in my feed, so there must be a way to enable and disable them in the settings.