It’s just how basic demographics analysis works. There’s a lot more people who are struggling with mental health problems/mental disabilities that make them more prone to believing scams. And so many games and storefronts use dark patters to make it extremely easy to make undesired purchases or have no safeguards to prevent children from using their parents credit card for purchases.
All these kinds of people vastly outnumber dumb finance bros on their yachts making stupid money decisions.
In 2016 the Republicans didn’t have the planning or political infrastructure to truly cause the damage they wanted to. In less than a decade we now have an openly corrupt and stacked Supreme Court, a legislature with plenty of Maga sycophants to pass whatever they want and a presidency that is going to be filled with the likes of Elon Musk and the literal Project 2025 playbook written by trumps cronies and the Herritage Foundation.