Hobbies are like seasons to me. I go through periods where I'm REALLY into something, then it takes a back seat for a while until I come around to it again. Forum membership usually coincides with interest. The daily ebb and flow of topics is only interesting as long as it's new, I think. Once you feel like you've "got it," it can be hard to maintain enthusiasm. But then I realize at some point I've forgotten a lot of the details, and these things tend to be so technical that if you're not honing your skills, you end up back in the "normies" group sooner or later, and then you're faced with whether or not you feel motivated to climb that learning curve again.
Now, for me, the collecting bit of it is mostly based in FOMO, because none of this stuff is getting cheaper or easier to find, so get it while the getting's good. But also because I'm a hardware / software hacker -- as in, I want an OG Sound Blaster 1.5 because some day I will use it as a baseline for an FPGA recreation that I make just for funsies. I've collected just about all the hardware that I'm really interested in. Some of it for its historical value to me, others because it's a recreation of what I had at a point in time. Others because I didn't have it, but I've always been curious. The software is where I get stuck, particularly for game consoles. There's SO MUCH out there, and I hate the idea of finding out about my new favorite game when it's $400 for one in "acceptable" condition on Ebay, so I've got a ridiculous collection just so I can go through it at my leisure. I can always scale down...
I like your new room, BTW. Looks warm and inviting. 😀 I'm going for something similar with a 90s vibe. Games, computers, audio equipment... it was a time when all of that stuff was exciting and people that liked computers or music were serious about it. Now it seems almost too accessible, so that it's not really special anymore. So I want to create a place for myself where I still have album covers, 240p, and command lines. Never mind the 4K TV, I brought that back from the future. 😁