depends on how you used MSN back then. For typing with online friends i mainly used chatrooms, MSN did the job for voice- and videocalls, sharing "funny" videos and pictures (now we would call it memes), links and other media. Later with Windows Live Messenger i played allot Uno and other featured games there.
So Discord filled up all these things i used MSN/Live Messenger back then close enough.
i miss all the charming chatrooms, blogs and this realy oldschool selfmade homepages.
Also i miss MSN a little bit but Discord is a close enough experience.
Sadly after Facebook got popular all of these went downhill realy quick...
nothing is wrong for having a competitive mindset and therefore beating weaker casual player. The toxic part there is blaming the casual player for being bad like most (not all) tryhards in some communities. What they didn't know, with such a behavior they actively prevent newer player to access the game cause todays casual gamer could be tomorrows competitive player.