Unfortunately, I do share the suspicion that a lot of good things I am very much used to were sponsored by ZIRP and soon it will crash really, really hard. This thought makes me anxious, I really don't like it, but I do agree that the culture of open source, and free web, and all these things was a fleeting phenomenon. Some of it is already dead, some will die soon. But I don't believe it applies to blogging.
I mean, fine, guy wants to retire. And it "coincides" with his 50th birthday (that's a magical coincidence for sure!) Just admit it's just about you, you are tired of doing what you did for 17 years. It's ok. But you weren't the only blogger, and everyone else isn't retiring together with you. Heck, I bet there is some new blogger writing his first post right now. I don't know if I'll like his posts as much as I liked some of yours, but I'm pretty sure life goes on without you, whether you like it or not (yeah, I know, I also don't really like the idea that life will go on without me!) Blogging is just one of the formats of how people express themselves, and while today there are many alternative formats that weren't really an option, say, 20 years ago, you cannot replace all of blogposts with a YouTube video or a TikTok. You can replace some, sure. Which isn't a bad thing either, it just means there now is a media that suits that type of content better.
Also, that warning about your substack not being a blog... But it is. A different kind of blog, maybe, but let's not pretend words mean anything more than they do. Even a telegram channel with lengthy posts is pretty much a blog. And, BTW, I don't know if Scott Alexander is supposed to be an "old media refugee" who's posts Venkatesh doesn't read, but his content is pretty much the same as on SCX. FWIW.