there are still people using it---a few examples of being used in Malayalam: https://typedrawers.com/discussion/4912/metafont-in-2023-nupuram-malayalam-typeface

there are still people using it---a few examples of being used in Malayalam: https://typedrawers.com/discussion/4912/metafont-in-2023-nupuram-malayalam-typeface-by-santhosh-thottingal https://typedrawers.com/discussion/4912/metafont-in-2023-nup... (the paper linked there has more information); the comments have work by another group which was presented at the TeX Users Group conference a few months ago.