Time to get out the shovels and shift some goalposts for the next round of scaremongering!

I mean I run a medium-scale (100-150 attendee) UK sci-fi fest larp, and have an event in mid-July. That may not be the type of thing you're looking for, but it is fun and we have spaceship sims à la Bridge Command. www.orionspherelrp.co.uk has the details.

Back bacon is the only bacon worthy of consideration.

Aaaaaand now it's cursed.

Possibly with a few bonus seconds of "can I do something to stop it? nnooooooaaaargh"

You can always put it on a machine with a super-light Linux install. Very little AI incorporated into those.

An unconventional Logan's Run scene! Nice.

By Erlik's bowels and bladder, serpent man blood is surprisingly refreshing!

Alas, peace is elusive in the Hyborian Age. 😭

I was gutted when you had to pull the rest of this series, I'm a huge fan of seeing my namesake in comic form.

Dungeon World, which has play materials for free online - simplified Move-based system for focused archetypal character play. Less focused on combat minutiae.
Heart: the City Beneath by @rowanrookanddecard.bsky.social, combat is less of a focus than exploration and character development.

Ok, great! That's a common issue, and is what has powered a lot of people to make story-first games. Possible options to look into (in the fantasy and adjacent genres)
Burning Wheel/Torchbearer/Mouse Guard - complexity is focused on character development rather than fighting.
PBTA systems like...

This is to say that if you have an idea of what you do like about it and what you want to avoid, let me know and I can probably point out some games to look at. I'm probably less help finding a group, but often a given game will have a community that can be approached with people lfg.

There is truly a bewildering number of games out there, but there's also lots of helpful people who could possibly recommend some indie games based on the issues you are having. Review sites, podcasts etc can also help. Finding a group and launching a non-DnD game can be intimidating, but is doable.

Some people will be happy to continue existing in the parasocial consumer position, others will remain with D&D until Hasbro screws it up eventually. I think the wider hobby needs to engage with the AP spaces and continually point out (politely) that other games exist & are available.