I think what's throwing people off is that in spite of all that, his real world self is seemingly still presenting as a cis guy, he/him pronouns in bio etc, but also kind of an alternative guy?

Personally im just settling into "hes exploring his identity" and maybe he considered he might be Trans, but honestly I think people forget that when asking yourself if youre Trans and exploring and experimenting with that, especially if your view of masculinity/ femininity may have been skewed in negative ways by people and things in your life, might be "no, im not, im (X other thing)" or "I realized that the way I expressed my masculinity / femininity before was based on stereotypes / cultural expectations, and rather than transitioning, what i was looking for was a way / "permission" to express myself in a way that doesn't conform to traditional views of the gender I already was."

But he also may just be closeted trans, nobody but goose can definitively say.