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It's also a lot easier to make music in your bedroom and release it online pseudonymously.

Learning an instrument, getting in a room with (most likely) strangers, and creating something opens you up to a lot of vulnerability. It's not easy so it makes sense people would choose the easier, safer options.

I think there's so much to gain (both musically and otherwise) from the more difficult option though, it's sad fewer people are choosing it.

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While I agree with what you said, that's only part of the story. The other half is that commercial interests push in another direction. This is true for products like DAWs, plugins and controllers, but also the spaces where music is done and played. Nowadays it's more difficult to find places that will allow you to play (not even saying paying you), and even the public itself. Mainstream music nowadays is a completely different beast, and while some might say that there's more variety of "top artists", the truth is that before, maybe there were some really big names too, but the rest of the attention was better distributed, and distributed more locally, which is critical for bands so they can play somewhere outside youtube. And even among people who enjoy different types of music, in general we have increased the surface area, but we have reduced the depth. This is not only about opportunities and accessibility to "making music", but about the dynamics of participating in the world of that people who goes around playing some instrument, hanging around with other people who also play instruments, and having places to share that. The world of bands. The differences in context don't go only one way, and the changes have been abysmal on both sides.

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