I agree that some reports of variants have been overly dramatic. However, antigenic drift, via viral evolution, is a real threat to the efficacy of the vaccines we have. Right now, the major vaccines still appear to be effective against these variants, which is great, but the rate and type of evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is difficult to predict, and it's an absolute truism in genetic mutation probability theory that the more transmissions we have, the more chances we have of a virus evolving which evades our vaccines. That's not "fear porn" - it's simple science, which I hope you would understand.
That is why virologists and public health experts are concerned with variants and allowing transmissions to continue at a high level and is also why it behooves all of us (in the US and the world) to vaccinate everyone as quickly as possible (including trying very hard to convince those who are worried about vaccines, despite there being nearly zero risk - and part of that "convincing" may end up being vaccine proof policies for work, travel and public events, as most won't want to be shut out of those things) and to wear masks until transmissions are very low.