I have complicated feelings about the demise of Cohost.
On the positive side, it has rejuvenated my blogging spirit. Before Cohost, I was burnt out on writing: I was being plagiarized, getting terrible comments, obsessively checking stats, and so on. Cohost's strange system allowed me to write again, to not give a shit what people thought, and to just assume that I could write my own thoughts without fear of repercussions. It was also where I learned to meet new people of all kinds.
On the other hand, Cohost remains a social media platform. I still see the same Twitter drama (especially when it's imported) that I despise, a lot of social justice discourse that goes nowhere, and just a lot of "online" behavior that I'm sick of.
i agree with a lot of what kastel's said here.
i think cohost definitely tempers some of the bad parts of the modern internet - seeing something get Likes is still a cheap thrill, but it's not as bad as seeing everyone else's numbers, too. the same hateful people and the same rotbrained arguments exist, but i saw far less of them, so... better? maybe? but not amazing. i've met great friends here, but i don't actually talk to them here.
i don't have it in me to abandon social media entirely. i still want people to see my work, to make games and see them played by others. i want to reach people, and share things with them, to speak to them and hear them speak in return. i think i would feel terribly lonely, posting into the void, unaware if anyone was seeing me at all...
but cohost going under is really making me think about how i approach the internet, and what i want. even on cohost, i still suffer from the addiction to daily notifications, from the hope that a post will Go Big. i am so happy that people enjoy the things i make, but i don't think i always appreciate it the way i should. i've never been able to fully rise above wanting more; i get petty, pathetic, jealous, greedy.
my brain has been molded by 20 years of little red dots. i think that even if a world of webrings and newsletters and personal sites of blogs and art galleries were the norm, in my current state, i wouldn't be able to really appreciate it... not to say that we shouldn't try, but that it's going to take a lot of work to twist myself into a healthier shape.

