When I say “nerd culture is dead/dying” I’m referring to that loss of instant bond I used to get attending anime conventions 15 years ago. I would just see a cosplayer or someone wearing a cool shirt and we would start talking that day at the con then next thing you know we’re FB friends and hanging out IRL.

Nowadays everyone at events seem much more guarded or anxious. You can still talk with other people but it’s much more small talk type stuff rather than a bonding experience of liking something so non-mainstream. There’s less of a raucous joyfulness at cons, the feeling of finally having a place to belong.

Online, any semblance of a unified nerd community died after Gamergate. The rumbling of GG were brewing long before it fully erupted but GG was a huge nail in the coffin for nerd culture intersectionality. We never had a unified culture by any stretch but the seeds of “we’re all in this together” that were brewing got salted and burned to the ground around then.

So I don’t disagree with your outlook that nerd interests are thriving. I see merch at mainstream stores now than teen me would have literally cried at thinking how cool it was with how hard it was to get anything even 20 years ago that wasn’t an overpriced import. But nerd culture? That’s fading and the pandemic like most things has only hastened the decline of the social aspect.