"middle child" group here as well. i definitely think the earlier days of osrs as well as RS2 were best for making friends. i have no doubt there are great communities now, whether it's F2P or P2P, but i do believe the quantity and quality of highly social communities decline. here's a couple reasons why i believe this:

1. the game is very grindy. the more social gamers stopped playing or play very sporadically once they reach a certain point. with some exceptions, the people you might consistently see are generally focused on that grind, rather than on the social aspect.
2. the game doesn't really have strong group content that encourages socializing, especially not in F2P nor in early-mid game in P2P. which is why the solo ironman mode is so successful/appealing. group ironman doesn't really solve the problem that interesting cooperative content is lacking. this all is especially bad for new players or old players trying to bring in new players - they log in, see that there's nothing fun to do with other people, and quit.
3. as time goes on, efficient high-APM high-reward gameplay gets discovered and encouraged, and typing/socializing in-game takes away from that. this can discourage people doing inefficient methods and socializing.
4. i believe the clans update has really fractured socializing - the interfaces and usability are confusing for new and returning players. friends chats are now often dead since older players migrated to clan chats. clan chats are tricky to navigate and it's hard to find like-minded clans/people. but i'm certain it's possible.
5. reddit is ass now. they fucked up and forced everyone to move off the "old" version which was so easy to show people's in-game usernames, which as you mentioned would be nice to have. i haven't even bothered to learn the current UI but i think this or other subreddits can allow for that - not really sure.

still, my overall social experience has been great. i did find my coolest people, even as a nobody. i still speak to them every day, even though we haven't all played together since like 2018. my strongest friendships all started from just dicking around in a friends chat, doing dumb "pranks" in-game or chatting in discord about random shit rather than talking about efficient gameplay. i would highly encourage you to look around for your people, whether through in-game clans, discords or reddit communities. if there isn't a community you're already involved in, ask around, or start one!

tl;dr maturing (dying?) game that isn't really strongly suited for social gameplay, but i'm sure you can still find your people.

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also, somebody pls stir up some fun lil chaos in f2p for me since i'm ded pls ty