I'm assuming ur asking me what I think about the Current state of the tag, not it's history, which I am only familiar with as of March 2019 (when I started reading onf fic)((I did read all the fic that was posted BEFORE then, but I wasn't on twt or part of the onf fic community pre 2019)).

I think the lack of consistent engagement from readers drives a lot of writers away. New and old. I've seen talented people stop writing for onf because despite the relatively sizable fandom, it often feels like writing into a void. Fuses seldom talk about fic on twt. They're starting now, but it's still very uncommon to see fic discussions on unlocked accounts. This lack of engagement with fanworks can be especially discouraging for new writers, as most struggle to even get 10 kudos on a fic and even fewer comments.

Overall there's much higher engagement with hyoj fic, and I believe this drives a lot of people to write it, which in turn, annoys a lot of readers who want more ship variety in the tag. All I'm gonna say about that is: if you want more variety in ur onf fic, then try writing it yourself. If you can't write it, then you should openly engage with the kind of work you want more of. Letting a writer know you love a certain ship they write is probably the best way to ensure you can get more fic of that ship.

Idk where I'm going with this but fuck it, short conclusion summary: the tag has always been pretty quiet, it had a boom back during rtk but it died off quickly and now it's getting a bit of a Renaissance, but it's still very quiet and small. There's some amazing fic in there, despite its small size. And despite what a lot of people complain about, there's less than 1k fic total in the tag so imo every pair is a rare pair my dudes let's all stop fighting and start commenting more godbles