If you look at all this JBP persona from a meta perspective its seemingly premature retirement fits neatly some overarching purpose.
Let me explain first my assumption:
We can put between the bubbe-meise that JBP's popularity growth was organic. He was definitely heavily promoted, and very successfully. From the time perspective, I see the pronouns controversy as contrived and fake, but it seemed so genuine at the time, right?
He became a popular media figure even though he was apparently heavily criticized and presented as an alt-right anti-hero. If you think deeply what idea he was selling, it will chill your spine.
On meta-level JBP as a persona is selling an idea that people who follow common sense and are attached to the traditional concepts of biological sex, gender roles, hero myths, etc. in other words JBP followers, are so inept in their real life that they don't even know they should clean their rooms or their private parts...
I don't fit the demographics JBP persona was created for, as I am not a young male, so this meta-narrative does not affect me. However, it took me some time to realize it that he was ultimately meant to be destroyed in the lamest way believable to discredit the ideas he was associated with, and hence we have this colorful story about benzos addiction and brain damage.
I don't believe anything I read on the internet, I just think it's plausible JBP got retired as he was meant to be.
In shame.