I would like to share my paracosm with people, but not as a product.

Exactly. That’s the right way forward.

If you still want to try to make a living in a creative field, you’ve shown yourself that you have the ability to do that. You don’t have to throw your paracosm aside, you just may have to place it aside to write something else. It’s still there—it’s not in the trash.

Worldbuilding that only exists for the sake of a story will never compare to worldbuilding for the sake of creating a world. The result is never as real, vivid, ingenious, or meaningful.

You’re speaking to people who are only interested in telling a story, and the worldbuilding is secondary to that. That’s the wrong crowd to ask about this—of course they reacted the way they did.

I understand how hard it is to talk about this with people, or to find a likeminded individual.

Often, a paracosm is a tool your mind has used to make sense of the world and consolidate different ideas. For you that may be more social (you mention characters), for me it’s been more scientific. Regardless, these things have been a part of your experience and your mental growth. Of course they have meaning to you beyond what those authors understand.

I have a job to support myself, but that isn’t where my greatest effort in life goes. I have other, independent, less profitable projects. That’s the way it is for many people. It works just fine.