It's definitely not the hobby of choice for young boys any more, but it feels like it is having a golden age of kit quality aiming at an older audience with disposal income. Manufacturers like Tamiya, and also Eduard or Meng (those are my favs anyway) are producing extremely high quality kits.
There is always consternation amongst modelers about where the next generation will come from, but the Gundam/Gunpla scene is supposedly very large in Japan and growing in the West.
I’ve found scale modeling to be a very rewarding (and screen-free) hobby since Covid times, and I’ve built more Tamiya kits than any other manufacturer.
I’ve heard that Mr Tamiya was very hands-on in choosing their topics for kits so it will be interesting to see how things change. But what a company he built!
If I'm feeling grumpy I don't respond, but if I have some patience left in the tank I'll use, "Hi, what's up?" which usually short-circuits the salutations.