I always have a bad experience with lemonbar. No matter what packages I have installed, some components are still missing. And I have looked for its Git page, the last update was years ago. Now, I feel comfortable with Polybar. Once hard, now easy.
I don't know about the basic step. I will check it later. I have tried the XFT version. It solves the XFT font issue. But I still can't see the i3 workspace Indicator.