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I'm sure all the recent factors with COVID, job market, etc. are all playing a factor now too, but we noticed it years before during "peacetime" when things were generally calm and what counts for good nowadays. It did seem to coincide though with social media really have gotten its hooks in deep, which seems more than coincidence to me. It is also about the same time as you saw the decline of sites like this one, and the meteoric rise of Facebook et al. I've always blamed that on most people being generally lazy - if they have to read/write more than five words and a few emojis to communicate, then they'd rather stick with quick and easy and run the risk of misunderstanding or being misunderstood than having to put at least a modicum of effort into it. As a feature not a bug, that style of communication also allows you to fill in the blanks yourself, so lo and behold, you get to hear what you want to hear, or get to find what you want to find. I think that same attitude runs rampant through other things, like finding someone who wants to have sex with you! Back in our day, we put a whole lot of effort into that Now for the younger generations, not so much it appears.

Having sex seems like a quaint practice from the distant past, like shaking hands.

This conversation about random DNA making it into the germ line has been speculative since the beginnings of genetics. While science is based on theory and falsifiable hypothesis--meaning it is impossible to prove a negative and say "impossible" and "never"--this is generally regarded as science fiction more than science fact. Yes it is possible to put additional DNA into a fertilized ovum--that can be done in the lab--but the idea of DNA sticking around for years and waiting for an opportunity in humans is farfetched. Your explanation of exposing some other characteristic that has been carried but not expressed is more likely. You mention that this is your daughter. She only got one of your X chromosomes; the other came from the father. It's worth reading about the fact that all women are mosaics, meaning that the X chromosome that is operating in a particular cell reflects the fact that the other one is inactivated. Nor is this necessarily balanced. In fact it is rarely balanced. Genes are strong things!