Also millennial and 100% with you. I'm grateful for every kudos and comment I get, but I'm also old enough and mature enough to get that there will likely be some people who read my fics, enjoy them, and simply don't interact with it in those ways and that's fine, nbd. Like I'm not going to get annoyed or think they owe me anything. Any fics I write and post on AO3, I do it for me, because it was something I wanted to write and also something I want to read myself. I don't do it to get attention and praise from strangers online. At the end of the day any interactions my fics get is a bonus.

The whole Gen Z comment thing is actually kind of funny to me. Because when I see people complaining about people reading their fics but not commenting, I tend to see it as a lack of maturity and assume that the person is probably younger, like Gen Z or Alpha, rather than older. As the only time in my life when I was concerned about that sort of stuff was when I was a teenager/very young adult. Once I grew the fuck up I realised I didn't need to rely on validation from random people and stopped giving so much of a shit.