For a while there I got into the habit of just temporarily friending and then unfriending the comms if their teaser post made me want to see the icons, but since some icon communities had this whole wait to be approved by the maintainer deal going on, I generally don't bother with locked icon communities at all now.

Although saying that, the trend these days is tending more towards "open for three days" which is slightly less aggravating. But urgh why does everyone have to follow one another like sheep when it comes to these things