[2023] Why are there so many Chinese(?) character names recently?

Originally posted by All_Mighty: I'm curious if there is a reason?

Because since few months you can use any character in your nickname. https://steamcommunity.com/games/236390/announcements/detail/3687927619409803744
Obviously many players, for whom Latin characters are not the primary (and usually only) alphabet prefer to use their native alphabet.
That's why now you can see many nicknames, that looks strange for someone, who knows only Latin characters. But for players from China, Japan, Korea and, for example countries, where you use Cyrillic-based characters, it's much easier to recognize friends etc.