There’s a difference in time commitment, tho’, between answering an email enquiring about future plans & having the zoom conversations that the original poster mentioned. Those demand lot of energy and seem somewhat beside the point when admissions decisions are made by committees, not individuals

Absolutely true. But I also checked his personal website and unless I missed something, it says about advising, current students, etc. So I’m not at all surprised people are asking to Zoom with him. He should just tidy up that thread and make it a paragraph somewhere everyone can read it.