I don't necessarily think that is a stop-gap against people socializing more offline/being socially productive online.

Especially considering the fact that it seems more the case that the bigger stop-gap is what we already have:

In asian (especially Japan) it's host(ess) clubs.

Globally for friends it's influencers exploiting loneliness.

Those are things I think has to go for people to embrace offline socialization or using their online time better.