Russia might not have made the decision to invade Ukraine if Germany hadn't tied its energy needs so transparently to Russian natural gas.
And absent blowing up Nord Stream, might have hung Ukraine out to dry anyway.
So having to rapidly build LNG import terminals? Repaying that debt.
Germany fully realizes that Gas is only an intermediate tech which still is relevant for the next 15-20 years.
The German fossil gas usage in the grid has been stable for decades at around 80 TWh.
The nuclear topic neither increased nor decreased fossil gas usage to make electricity.
Regarding nuclear, the electricity companies didn't want to continue after they had already prepared to shut down the reactors. Maintenance was deferred, people let go or reassigned, etc.