On the other hand, traditional soaring is dying all over the world
while hang/paragliding are booming.

Full flying membership of the BGA (source Sailplane and Gliding)

1974 9899
1993 9409
1994 9522
1995 9757
1996 9409
1997 9225
1998 9153
1999 8802
2000 8975
2001 8848
2002 9166

That works out roughly a 7% reduction in 25 years. Nothing to get comlacent
about but not as drastic as some of the doom mongers would have us believe.
There has even been an upturn over the last few years