That's who I thought of as well. I check her channel periodically hoping to see the "I'm back" video. No luck yet :(
Yeah I'm pretty hesitant to pick this up. I've been casually watching 2020 for when the bugs would be mostly quashed and the feature list complete. Then all of sudden they're "surprise! we made another one instead!". I know they say they're still working on 2020, but I'm being very patient and cautious with 2024.
I think it depends on where the yard is. A luscious green garden of non-native plants is a waste of water in desert areas. With the kinds of droughts that are becoming more common, replacing yards with rocks and low-water native plants is beneficial. And to be honest, even in areas that aren't in a drought, manicured lawns don't do much for the environment because they get loaded with pesticides and fertilizers to keep them as green and homogenous as possible. No flowers, no weeds, no bugs, no seeds, no diversity.
That kind of stuff irks me a bit as well, but I think it's human nature. It's a form of call-and-response where people can show that they're apart of the community. Friendships are built on shared experiences, and those kinds of memes are instant shared experiences that are being used to build camaraderie. I think the reason it is annoying to users like us is because it feels watered down, like a free ticket in, instead of becoming a part of the community organically. I get both sides, so I don't actively try to stop people from doing it, I just ignore it.
Apparently the debris found was "a landing frame and rear cover from the submersible". So it sounds like they didn't have to suffer slowly.