for what it's worth, myself, my partner, and many other people i know did become more interested in baseball because of blaseball. before, i had no interest at all in baseball - now i follow it at a distance, and go to a game or two each year. my partner and i are actually going to a AAA game in a few days for our anniversary.
with that said, i'm still far more interested in blaseball than baseball, because of how it related to my life. baseball is a game played by distant millionaires, for even more distant billionaires. i have never known a single person irl who follows it closely, even though i've lived almost my entire life in msp. it exists almost completely apart from me.
blaseball, on the other hand, is probably my favorite video game of all time. i've been obsessed with it's storytelling, community, fanwork and mechanics since it started, and have meaningfully participated in all of them. i help write and develop characters, plotted strategies other fans of my team, and organized a large community event that ran for nearly 9 months. it helped me stay close with several irl friends during the height of the pandemic, and helped me meet several new online ones as well.
when i look at barry bonds' numbers, i see an impressive performance by someone i will never know or interact with. i understand how impressive they are, but the knowing that doesn't make me feel anything. when i look at aldon cashmoney's, i see a story that i followed live from beginning to end, and that i played a (small) part in authoring. i remember the pain i felt when ve left my team, the mixed feelings of watching vim succeed to an even greater degree on a rival as my team languished, the joy of watching other fans make art and tell stores about a character i'd helped to originate, and the sadness i felt once ve left the game entirely. the fact that bonds is a real flesh and blood person while aldon is "just" a fictional character doesn't change the fact that aldon's story means infinitely more to me than bonds'.
in 2021, at the end of the expansion era, i spent hours coordinating a plan with other fans of my team from around the world to outrace a black hole that was devouring the universe, and cried my eyes out when the season ended and we fell just short. blaseball isn't for everyone, and i wouldn't begrudge anyone for choosing not to follow it, but viewing it as just an inferior substitute for "real" baseball, or as a means to get more people interested in it, is quite reductive.