StackOverflow didn't feel like a welcoming and humane place the last 10+ years, at least for me.

Actually I think it never did.

It started when I was new there and couldn't write answers, just write comments and then got blasted for writing answer-like comments as comments. What was I supposed to do? I engaged less and less and finally asked them to remove my account.

And then it seems like the power-users/moderators just took over and made it even more hostile.

I hope Wikipedia doesn't end up like this despite some similarities.

I don't think the reputation system ever worked that way - new users could always answer questions, but comments required more reputation.