I have known wine women and song. Yet I enjoy thinking. It may not be a binary problem. There are a handful of people I can converse with and that is sufficient for me. However I am not trying to make it as a writer.
The uside is that you can fill this vacuum. You will find people. Over the last two decades Iwas a member of a couple of book clubs. Two discussions groups. And informal collective of night clubbers. Be the change or maybe write it.
Recognition forget it or maybe don't make it a priority. Jane Fonda summed up the Mee too movement.
How many people work for the greater good. I don't. Most people wt a few things a person, a place, a mode of transport, clothing, and everything else in the shop.