Not for the average player
I was a long-time resident and saw a lot of things come and go. Nowadays there is mesh but it is still endlessly laggy. Areas with complex textures take ages to load. Even in 2024, teleport-crashes occur on a very regular base. The User interface is still unwieldy, alone how the inventory is built is a mess on its own.
Second Life once had a social aspect, but that is long gone. A lot of sims are just empty. Ghost towns. Social “activities” almost no longer exist, a lot (most) of things are reduced to pornography and pixel tinder. There are some role play sims whose role play is - of course - only about sex. As a woman walking around in fetish fashion or even underwear 24/7 is a normal thing there. It is how it is: The main focus lays on adult activities. There is a reason why Second Life is not allowed to be streamed on Twitch.
A lot of things only happen at big shopping events (if you are not paid premium and those sims are full - you often must wait one or two days until you are able to enter the sim, there is a special type of player prefered in that virtual world and those have preferred access.) where you can buy your sexy clothes to "fit in" or on photogenic sims where people shoot their avatar and upload their pictures onto flickr. If you are a landlord or a"talented creator" maybe you make some rl money. Talented means: Learn to Blender. Or to create a realistic skin. If you are offering sexual pixel services, maybe you can earn money too. That's it. If you doing none of these you will pay your rl money into it to have a decent updated avatar and land. Land is not free. People are highly picky on avatars. If your avatar seems "outdated", some prefer not to talk to you. Well, there goes your money. Gachas are gone but of course those creators had a solution and those things have a slightly different mechanic now. Still dangerous for people with a high addictive behavior.
There ARE some normal activities to do but not as much as the other ones. Just try the search function and you'll see what is more popular. Years ago that was more balanced.
There is hardly any fresh player base anymore. Just around 40K Boomers/Gen-Xers (alts and bots included) who want to feel young/ enjoy pixel sexual activities, logging on a daily base year after year.
Conclusion:
Second Life is a niche product for special players AND creators who are fullfilling the desires of the players for an everlasting youth and a "high potent" pixel love life. Not for children or teenagers, not for sensitive viewers.
-Creativity: It's not like you do log in the first time and build everything straight away. To earn Lindön$ by creating, you need skill. You can buy things and decorate them beautifully, but everything beautiful costs money.
- A lot of "communities" are toxic. It's a "Second Life", there is the same elbow mentality as in real life, maybe even more in "fast motion"
- People with a "past" can get retraumatized at some places. There is no moderation anywhere. Play at your own risk.
- For social aspect SL had it's times but they are over or very hard to find.
- And last but not least: Customer service rarely exists. It is reserved for premium users (and even there it's not fully available), who have to pay monthly. If you get banned - you'll stay banned. And all your future accounts too. If you ask them for what you got banned you will get a "friendly" answer to leave and never come back. It doesn't matter how many years you played or how many Lindön$ were put into this account. It's gone. Without explanation. Did not happen to me but to a friend.
What to do? It's better to switch to other, moderated mmos/ virtual worlds.