If you’ve been on Strava for many years then decide to go into private mode the reason is because you have problems inside your head. Otherwise there is no reason not to stay visible to your friendly Strava athletes.
If you never started Strava to begin with then you’re discounted, and fair play to you.
I was public for years then realised that being public shows people where I live (approximately)
I had changed the visibility of the start and end to be larger than the normal but you could still work a lot out
I worked with a bloke that I saw on a segment and I looked at his account - and I could work out pretty much which house he lived in
Plus - specific to me and people like me - I realised that on many segments my rides were lumped in with everyone else on a bike
including all types of bike - some of which have a motor like mine
and some of them might be using a high assist level
I reckoned it was just unfair to continue on an ebike where it was not easily obvious to other people
so - not fair to others and also not safe
I also noticed that when I started as public I was shown a lot of other riders that I had passed
that number dropped and dropped - but the number of other cyclists was increasing
so I reckon a lot of people were either stopping using Strava - or switching to private
- Finance Director ! At least we have something to talk about and I did the Tour De Manc with him a couple of years ago.