Akihabara is still alive and well. Comiket also is as big as ever.

Some of the people I follow have been complaining in the past as well about changes in Akihabara. Granted, they were complaining about electronic stores dying out there and not anime-related stuff, so I'm not sure how that translates. I think I also read or heard complaints about Comiket being just a big corporate event instead of the place where people go to sell their doujins. I remember something about winter Comiket now being the new main event for those non-corporate exhibitions.

What I want to say is that I don’t think there’s no passion anymore, just that certain parts of industry become soulless husks of themselves.

You are right, the passion is not lost entirely, but looking at the fandom as a whole, I feel like it has become so large and commercialized that the passionate people are just small individual clusters in an ocean of indifferent people and ads. I base this only on my own views and how it feels to me, and I certainly have changed as well over the years.