People with a passion for flying will still assign the resources to satisfy their desires
Sorry, laudable but naive.
The recreational pilot population consists of a range of pilots from those for whom the cost is not a concern to those who count the last five minutes of hire time. Talk to any club and the price any aircraft is hired at is a significant factor in the take up to the extent that an extra tenner will result in one aircraft being more popular than another even though the other is more desirable.
Take a straw pole of the amount of fuel being purchased at most airports and you will realise how dramatically the number of hours flown has fallen in the last few months.
Even those for whom the cost is not an issue may well be find that they are devoting more time to their businesses in the current more difficult climate with in consequence their recreational flying suffering.
Those seem to be the facts - I wish it were not so even if seeing a whole lot fewer contacts on the TCAS today was welcome.