i don't think herobrine was "cringe" its just more of a, childish thing. which depends on how you view things for it to be cringe. I myself really want to read as many lore books as possible, i even have a notepad irl to keep track of everything and my thoughts on how the story goes.
(Also to ladyWYT, i feel like there could be some way temporal stuff could be tracked, like keeping notes of where rifts spawn and intensity of them. Which could show you where some big thing is hidden, kinda like an ingame arg. Maybe not required, but for fun!)