It's the genre, cookie cutter is what it is. Unless it's EVE in which case you have the same people playing since 2003 it's impossible to get into as a new player. But EVE is a special case.
I returned to eve in 2020 with a fresh account, my 3rd time returning and it was easier than ever.
I was in a 0.0 alliance after about a month living in feythabolis doing loads of fleet pvp.
https://zkillboard.com/character/2115650112/ as seen by my kill log.
I lived in empire for a month doing exploration, find WH to nul, do exploration there until you have hundreds of mil of loot, go back to empire through same wormhole drop of your loot, head straight back.
I could make hundreds of mil in a few hours even as a fairly low skill noob.
after a month I went and joined a nulsec alliance in feythabolis and the rest was easy, still mostly did exploration for loot though until I had good BS skills for ratting.
I was upto having a thanatos before I quit, at one point I had enough ISK to buy a mothership but spent it mostly on skill injectors instead
