It's the same here most people stopped playing long ago, same goes for my friends. So I'm mostly playing alone and hatching eggs because near my home aren't much pokemon to catch. But for raids I actually joined the fb group for my area and it has been working pretty well for both entei and suicune. But it's definitely still a lot of fun especially since I got charizard and gym fights also are much more fun now!
The nearest “big” town I go to for raids is like 40 minutes away so whenever I go it’s just a matter of ‘hoping a legendary raid happens in the time im there and hoping people show up’. I use a local fb group too but most people are on discord and i dont have that on my phone so a lot of my PoGo experience is luck-based haha
Yeah gym fights are much more fun! I can use Pokemon other than the usual boring meta ones. If there’s a gym of dragonite and snorlax and blissey in the red on CP, who’s gonna stop me from going in to fight them with a 20cp Girafarig and a 100CP Quagsire? It’s fun to be able to use different mon and see them fight!