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I got into this back when it was just uploaded videos with barely anyone doing streams, live2D was barely used versus VR motion tracking, memberships/twitchsubs weren't a factor, and the "girlfriend experience" style of vtuber content effectively did not exist. I can't really say I'm fully "not parasocial", because the original appeal for me was the idea of an anime girl who has some kind of persistent existence with half a foot in reality, but it's a different kind of experience than GFE. I like watching cute girls do cute things, sing, play games, tell jokes, etc., and even a few males who are funny and can play games etc. in an entertaining way, and it's cool that there's a good chance that if I draw one of them and put it on twitter under one of their tags, they might see it and like/RT it. Watching cute girl vtubers has almost completely supplanted watching CGDGT anime for me and watching a vtuber play a game is just a plain superior experience in every way to watching regular streamers doing that due to the presence of an anime girl/boy on screen at all times.
