Usually I think Audiophiles say those kinds of brute modulations are undesirable
It depends. The SM7B is a top of the line microphone and should sound fine without any software side tweaks, what goes into the OS should already be top quality. The SM7B has physical switches to change the characteristic of it and that's fine to use, most likely all podcasters mess with those. It's not the modulations that are the issue, but how you apply them, in what context and for what reason.
If you have to resort to using software side corrections for the gain or the sound profile, then you're either not using your hardware to it's fullest potential or you have an issue with it. You shouldn't resort to OBS to tweak the mic levels, you should be able to speak into the SM7B from up close and not be overly loud/peaking on the interface side. You shouldn't resort to OBS to EQ your mic, the mic should deliver the good quality by itself.
I already did a whole spiel on how the Cloudlifter is a waste of money and that the 3rd gen Scarlett 2i2 you most likely have doesn't have enough juice for the SM7B where it's best to invest the money for the Cloudlifter into a better audio interface, and how the 4th gen Scarlett 2i2 got updated to deliver enough juice for the SM7B by itself, but AFAIK you've had that misguided overpriced meme setup for years, and on the MATI streams from about two months ago you had a much better sound, so besides the PSA of don't buy into the meme podcaster setup and save your money in the future, the issue lies somewhere else.
It seems that the drop in audio quality happened after the hiatus. The MATI from March 15th is the last one to have an acceptable audio quality where the one from March 1st had an even better podcast voice sound to it. The return stream from April 12th lost that radio quality to it, possibly due to being streamed from a closet so the room's acoustics are playing a big role. April 16th was peaking and there was audible distortion when you spoke louder. From April 19th onward there was no peaking but the audio quality was at it's worst, on par with my chink USB condenser mic when I talk with it away from my face.
I don't know, it may be the hardware setup/config, the software fuckery, or the change of room because that also matters. The point is, you sound like shit now and you sounded like gold on the March 1st stream. Try and see how to get back to that sound without any software side tweaks, just the mic and the interface. You should be able to tweak it so that you can talk straight into the mic up close with the right audio quality without touching OBS' audio filters, and ideally, the Scarlett 2i2 should handle the volume levels by itself, so that you can talk straight into it and not blow people's eardrums out, and do the same when yelling.
Basically, pro audio is hard and it takes a lot of work to get it right.