The issue I see is that pain you talk about is overwhelmingly inflicted by the journalist doing the interview. “How do you think your father (who passed recently) would feel about your win/loss” and all that. Perhaps that wasn’t always the case, it the only ‘parasocial’ connection I get from watching those is sympathy for the athlete subjected to them.

Maybe Osaka is benefiting from others past participation, but I think she’s right in identifying that the audience today (at least her audience) does not demand or even want that sort of interaction