It’s a bit of a problem, indeed. Here’s a practical example of that:

In this example, I’m writing from a lemmy.ml account, but the display name impersonates another account in another instance (beehaw.org). Anyone could do this with someone else’s account.

Based on that, I think that:

• the Lemmy software should not allow you to use “@” as part of your display name. Ever. Reserve it as a special character.
• clients should always show which instance you’re from, even with a display name. A simple icon would be enough as long as instance admins set up uniquely identifiable ones.
• two accounts in the same instance should never be allowed to use the same display name.

And for us, users: never rely on the display name. If the identity of someone is contextually relevant, always check the actual username, not the display name.