The IndieWeb movement, standards like WebMention, services like Neocities, and a growing Fediverse have made it so that there is at least some interest in personal websites in the Anglosphere again. I follow a lot of people in my RSS reader, and there’s a growing community of people regularly writing blog posts, having conversations via their blogs, maintaining digital gardens, and generally building small, niche, non-commercial websites for fun. Not to mention people writing email newsletters.
It only appears as if the web today is dominated by corporate interests. It’s true that most people stay within those walled gardens, but there are many people still building things outside of them. A more human web still exists, but you need to specifically go looking for it.
I recommend starting with https://ooh.directory. If your city has an IndieWebCamp or Homebrew Website Club, you might have good luck there.