none said:

I just recently finished taking a course, after the final class a bunch of us went out for a celebratory drink. So everyone shares a little about their lives and eventually I can't help but mention the shit i'm involved in being investigatory into this SW thing. A literal spit take from one of the group, and that's fine but it's that look afterwards like, 'you complete waste of existence', that comes to their face. Which just drills home how off the map we really are here.

No, THEY are off the map, not you.
For being complete morons.

If you can go out for a drink for many hours (as well as watch sports or whatever) and not be a waste of existence, then you can do stuff with SW and be none the worse.
I'm guessing they've got some amount of insecurity about their own hobbies, so it figures.