I do see a large number of people getting affected by this. Character.AI reportedly has 20 million MAU with an average usage of 75 minutes per day (
https://www.wired.com/story/character-ai-ceo-chatbots-entert...), and does not as far as I can tell have any use case other than boundary-degrading roleplay.
Medical data is reported on a substantial lag in the US, so right now we have no idea of the suicide rate last year, but I would falsifiably predict it's going to be elevated because of stories like those of Mr. Gavalas.