Close reading in the current fandom climate is, first, just a great way to engage with people over topics that have much lower stakes than our current IRL topics of conversation (politics).

Wow, yes, excellent point. And probably goes a long way to explaining the pitch of the discourse surrounding these issues. We gravitate toward them because they're lower stakes, but they become a stand-in for higher-stakes topics.

Second, as a writer, I believe close reading lets me know what people tend to look for (or trained to look for) in character interactions and to tailor scenes that are much more subtle on the surface, but to the astute reader can scream "THEY'RE GONNA FUCK."

Yes! What a great point! I might have to take this into further consideration in my own writing!