You can trade on Binance before without KYC, but Binance had no option than to make KYC mandatory. Yet, Binance remain as the exchange with the highest trading volume. Although, some people that are concerned about KYC left the exchange at the time. Jeremias Kangas founded Localbitcoins in mid 2012. 2022 crypto winter wasn't the first, that makes your post valid, but regardless of what happened, it is still about the survival of the fittest, but not necessarily about KYC as well if other things has been in place. Although, I am not disputing the fact that KYC could have been the reason for the start of Localbitcoins collapse.
It is not very logical to compare LB, which was a Bitcoin exchange, with that CEX, which achieves its trading volume thanks to countless shitcoins, its own token and the fact that CZ, like all Chinese, has learned very well how to fake trading volume. If some kind of internal audit entered their system, I wouldn't be surprised if their actual numbers are at least 30% less than what we see in public - but when you buy CMC as one of the most popular crypto sites, then you can very easily build an image that you are best.
If he's an early adopter probably he has 100x more than what would be left over a year stashed in BTC already.
After 10 years, I wouldn't be surprised if the man decided that he had enough money to end the whole thing and maybe devote himself to some new challenges. Some are surprised by this, as if a person has committed to providing a service for life, and how many people have been active on this forum for 10 or more years - or how many will be there in 10 years?