Less a 'chain' or hierarchy than a lecture hall with cliques. Many of the 'influencers', media personalities, infamous, famous, anyone with a recognizable name - for the most part - was introduced to the tsunami wave of [new tech] at the same time. They may come with advantages, but it's how they get back to the 'top' (for your chain) vs. staying up there.

For a while now I've felt that there's an apathy in: there's more content being created than consumed.

this is true, like 90% of projects submitted on product hunt have 1 vote or less.

I've set the bar so low that getting a reply to that was already unexpected.

There is a lot of "attention" to go around for small group interactions like this subthread. Like a bar chat I guess.

Lmao, me too, the internet has become a single player game at this point. I usually just type and forget.