I think long COVID is a number of real things, including lingering infection, stress, post-ICU syndrome, EBV reactivation, chronic fatigue syndrome in those prone to it (any virus can trigger it).

Stress is a real thing too, but without checking, we can’t distinguish between people who have stress after having COVID and people who have stress from trying not to have COVID ;).

The one silver lining is that it IS pushing research into CFS and post-viral syndrome that might help people who have it from other causes.