Funny you mention that. I spend half of every year cycling the world, editing OSM while I do so. I am well aware that I am about the only person doing so for a given region of countryside, and it could be years before another mapper comes along after me. I can look back at places I mapped years ago, even before Covid, and see almost no additions since mine, even though the given routes might be popular ones that draw a lot of cyclists or overlanders.
Most of my peers in the bicycle-travel community are uninterested in mapping, or even totally unaware of where maps come from. Apps like Komoot became standard tools for cyclists, but only a minority ever learned that such apps' data derives from OSM and anyone can edit it. So, the concerns I mentioned in my original post about getting people involved are valid.