I wouldn't necessarily blame your niche interests or anything else like that. There's lots of people this applies to who just forgot how to socialize. I would put myself in that category. I like sports and many other popular things, and I used to be reasonably easy to talk to but ever since covid I'm considerably more awkward in social situations.

Someone I haven't seen in two years will ask what I've been up to and my mind just goes blank. It's not that I've been sitting at home doing nothing the whole time but for some reason none of the things I could talk about come to me in the moment. It's a strange thing to feel yourself being socially inept in a way that you didn't used to be. I've gotten better but it's still weird a lot of the time.