How is this in any way new?

The meme "I can't even choose an option that makes an NPC sad in a video game" is years old. As is the insight that quasi-parasocial relationships with fictional characters are much, much stronger than empathy towards actually existing human beings that are just "concepts" to us, be they in faraway places as victims of war, natural disasters or the everyday exploitation of the global economic system, or members of an outcast class in our own societies, be they homeless or political opponents we classify as "not really human". As the other comment said, we fell with Michael Scott instead.