I think actual play has been a net good. For every few people only interested for the lifestyle there’s a few true believers made. Trying to crack that shell though has been rough. I’ve honestly never played to much of 5e. My groups always changed every other game.
Though I’ve never thought about forum games, they were pretty dead afaik when I looked into them. I was in an area where liking D&D would make you the one kid in a 30 minute radius so I got exposed to it after college. All my games now are play by post though.