I think the forums are undergoing a bit of an identity crisis. Ostensibly it’s a forum, but site staff also want a connected wiki and a storefront, and a good chunk of users seem to be trying to use it as either an advertising platform or a place to browse for games and not really interact. I also have all the gen-AI stuff muted so there’s a lot of stuff I never see, maybe the site has more game design discussion on those threads. Overall I'd say it's trying to cater to too many types of people all at once and the experience of using the site suffers as a result.
I still check in on the site and look at the new threads but at this point I’ve got other people I can talk in depth about fetish game design and less time in general than I used to, so I’m less inclined to weigh in on game threads specifically unless they’re a genre I’m interested in and have something immediately playable. Admittedly this is a pretty big restriction since it cuts out projects that are mainly vore, stuffing, or inflation, visual novels, anything that requires a subscription, and “what do you think about my multi-page story for a game?” threads, so that’s on me. I still love general game design discussion there though.