This video was in my recommended the other day:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-3YId3T-Ww
So I think you guys are on the money here. I think it makes sense too. Younger zoomers, the ones around age 18 currently, grew up in the era of "ragebait". So it makes sense they developed this "personality" as a defense mechanism. Just like cringe culture turned a lot of gen z into ironybros, ragebait turned a lot of gen z into these weird nonchalant larpers. Except they've been doing it so long it seems to come naturally to them. Like an acquired accent.
I also think its partially due to just a lack of social interaction and being terminally online in general. Even beyond the whole fake nonchalant stuff, my coworkers really lack basic social skills. I'm sure this is a generational problem, not just with my coworkers and other zoomers i've observed.
I've actually been thinking about making a thread about Classroom of the Elite for a while now because I think I have a somewhat unique take on it.
But yeah, the whole kuudere archetype has been run into the ground in anime a loooong time ago. Evangelion came out 31 years ago and even Rei Ayanami wasn't the first kuudere in anime, she's just the character that popularized it. Ayanokoji is basially just Lelouch if he were a generic kuudere instead of having magic eye powers.