zalgo256: https://gist.github.com/DavidBuchanan314/07da147445a90f7a049...

Hey, cool little rabbit hole there. I had totally missed all that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalgo_text

am I unusual in not really seeing the "creepiness" of zalgo text?

Maybe you missed this piece of the internet history: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454

Think of it as representing something like the letters actively 'creeping' and giving off tendrils of darkness. Does this help?

It's not inherently creepy but often symbolic of corruption or someone talking in a raspy/synthetic "evil overlord" kind of voice.