>>717068467
>Nonetheless, that sort of thing has certainly quietened down since.

I feel like it was a direct response. Like after Doom 2016 and especially Eternal people realized there were actually concrete consequences to seemingly harmless jokes.
Damn near around the same time you started seeing more portrayals of Gordon Freeman less as a bespectacled crazed gunman and more a traumatized survivor. I wouldn't be surprised if people are doing it specifically to avoid One Free Man becoming the One True Slayer or something.