I'm curious what you think the solution is. I have my ham license and work in commercial radio, so I certainly have an idea of how the tools work. But even in an area with a lot of repeaters, there is pretty limited activity at any given time, so what are people supposed to do to get experience? ARES/RACES type emergency response groups practicing for cold war, pre-internet type threats don't appeal to everyone.
Sadly, the digital protocols for local use in the VHF/UHF bands available to new hams (2m / 70 cm) are generally boring 1980/90s-esque technology. Would be nice if a newer system came about for messaging and bulletin board type systems - voice doesn't scale.
APRS works decently well for things like messaging and bullitens and has some interesting web connectivity possible. In my area the normal 1200 baud 144.390MHz is quite crowded but a number of digipeaters and I-Gates operate on a 9600 baud 70cm frequency as well.
Also there's some metro area WiFi mesh networks which operate in amateur spectrum. That's a good bit of fun.
APRS is interesting, but again - I'm not sure a 1200/9600 baud narrowband system is going to scale in a real emergency (for two way communication at least, for broadcast information its probably enough).
Sadly, the digital protocols for local use in the VHF/UHF bands available to new hams (2m / 70 cm) are generally boring 1980/90s-esque technology. Would be nice if a newer system came about for messaging and bulletin board type systems - voice doesn't scale.