Agreed, these sorts don’t need a bike, never did, it was just a phase they were going through,It's probably new hobby fatigue. They've done the sportives and they are on STRAVA but reached their physical limit and the average ride speeds are not showing the improvement they used to do. Most of them got into cycling as a performance sport on the back of the Olympic and TdF successes but never learned to ride a bike for the enjoyment of just cycling somewhere for it's own sake. Like any "New thing" which has a meteoric rise, the fall will be just as severe.
the only good thing about this phase was the amount of good second hand bikes available
at very affordable prices.