I read this yesterday but didn't get a time to comment. Now read it again, and glad I did. really good stuff here. So true (and hey apparently you're older than me :P, i'm coming up on my 8th anniversary myself). I think often about the people who vanished from here - but also the great pleasure when, after a long, long absence, you see an old account start posting again. Thankfully, I have people in real life who are on here and I can share the happy news "so-and-so posted again! they're alive!". Most "normies" wouldn't get it, the thrill of seeing some random person online come back. But people here do.
I'm really glad to have met you here :)
There's an artist like that. I discovered her work in my "youth", on Deviant Art. Yes, I'm that old. Anyway, fast forward a few years, she was an art director on a few films. I purchased a collection of her posters that was published by Balistic, who were a publisher of very fine CG Art. Then, her website's domain expired. Then I couldn't find any social media posts. But I still have her art on the walls of my house.
I wonder what they are up to these days, and I hope they're still kicking about, making breathtaking stuff. I kind of don't really want to know, but at the same time, I do, but I don't want to know, because I've come and gone to terms with that loss. I wouldn't want to go through it again.
Strange thing to describe, I think, but I'm glad your comment made me come up with it. I am hopeful I'll get to keep reading your stuff.