I'm currently on the inverse of what you're describing, coming from attending occasional conferences and meetups to no longer going. It's like an oscillating habit for me because I've been in both transitions of increasing and decreasing involvement more than once before.

Especially at the smaller conferences, the break mingling and "hardcore" afterparty crowd are a lot of fun and I've met tons of people and hung with them; many of them or their work are discussed here on SN. It's cool to actually know the person behind what's being talked about; happened 3 times on different front-page SN posts yesterday alone, but it's at the same time cringe because the internet is toxic and often wrong. I'm not going to correct people though; I'd not succeed and if they wanna learn they have to find out for themselves.

So yes. Get out there mfs. It will be like washing your mouths with soap (or in some cases, DDT) and you will not say such ugly stuff about people anymore.

I miss the Bitcoin party scene sometimes, but on the other hand, I am at the moment building my personal empire, Solarian style. I overflow with inspiration and I don't really need the external influence right now, even though it would probably make me happier (as unlike you, I am an extrovert)