> In some ways it's bringing back old web rings and simple networking through hyperlinks.

And there are plenty of likeminded individuals, many who have posted here. It may not seem like it because linking with hrefs and webrings is much more fragmented than services that beat you over the head with engagement metrics.

I think the distributed linking model coexists well with centralized resources like: (https://indieseek.xyz/links/internet/blogging/) and (https://outerweb.org/explore/category/indieweb) (mine)