Having attended sx for many years myself, I understand what you are saying about the difficulty to calculate what is lost. My liver thanks me as well.

But the assumption is that the opportunity cost is 0. And that nothing is happening that will replace it. For every action, there is an equal and opposite one. We can look at the consequences of the lost connections, lost revenue, lost innovation, or we can hope that we have renewed sense of urgency to drive progress in the most fragile areas of society — like healthcare where tech will play a significant role.

By no means am I suggesting that the ends justify the means, but that the energy will be transferred towards an area where perhaps we need it more — I think we will do just fine without another meme creator app or cronut 2.0.