it's always been posed as an 'inaccessible cult.' You gotta ask yourself "by whom?". Actual users of the site, people having serious discussions about the site

it's always been posed as an 'inaccessible cult.' You gotta ask yourself "by whom?". Actual users of the site, people having serious discussions about the site, writers of pop articles aimed at non-users of the site, or someone else? Even then, you have this conflation of /b/ (or I guess these days /pol/) and 4chan at large. Some communities are more welcoming than others.