Furry art in particular might be an exception since the larger events were pushing toward 10-15k pre-covid[0], and they had rooms full of people taking and sometimes doing commissions right there with you. It's always been a hybrid online/offline community, so the internet and social media were amplifiers for the offline experience rather than a detriment. Conventions exploded in growth and number with the rise of social media. People increasingly open it up to non-furry friends and family, so it's reached a point where even famous people (or people who worked on famous things) show up to conventions.

How to take lessons from that exception and bring it to other lived experiences is uncertain. Most other niches don't have the fluffy animal aspect to smooth over the difficulty of getting friends/family interested in what you're doing.

[0] https://en.wikifur.com/wiki/List_of_conventions_by_attendanc...