this is very true, do not take this as me disagreeing with OP. I do ALSO however want to say that the events of 2020, lockdown and beyond, very much shattered the monoculture which itself changed fandom writ large for the worse as ppl tied more of their identity to it
"Fandoms used to be full of nice ppl before covid and then all the bullies and popular kids joined" is literally an "the earth is flat" tier false belief to me