Numerically, more people than ever are indeed participating on the internet in all kinds of ways. Some of them crappy and shallow, but many much more creative.

Many people who complain about this not being the case, particularly people on HN with a history of using the old internet, are actually complaining about not having the same limited, much more insularly participative internet they used to. Mainly, you just don't like that much of the far broader internet participation of today doesn't fit your preferences because it comes with all the usual foibles of wider humanity, so you either pretend parts of it don't exist in the first place, or apparently claim they're shallow, spammy garbage.