I still use NNTP every day. I've never used Usenet, but it's very useful (through Gmane and Gnus) as a way to follow mailing lists. Also, the internal forums at $DAYJOB support connecting through NNTP, which is extremely convenient.

Likewise I use IRC every day, through Bitlbee, to interact with people on Facebook Messenger and other platforms.

I can do all of this from my client of choice (I choose Emacs) without a problem.

Admittedly this doesn't solve the problem of topicality, but I think things are better than they seem.