Closing questions is not an expression of disdain. It's merely saying that a question like this is not suitable for the site as it is today, in this instance because it is not inside the scope of physics as a natural science.
When the scope of a site changes, which inevitably happens over the course of the years (and in particular we are today simply stricter about many of the policies that in principle existed already ten years ago), questions that once were on-topic become off-topic. It is right that they can be closed after the fact, and age is not a reason not to close them (but there's usually no pressing need to go hunting for old, now off-topic questions), because users contributing to the site today often look at the questions that are already here to figure out what kinds of questions they can ask.
So in order to signpost that certain kinds of questions would no longer be considered on-topic if they were asked today, old questions can and should be closed. Note that, since it is upvoted and has upvoted answers, the question will not be deleted, and you did not lose any reputation you gained from it. We recognize that it is not your fault that the question was once welcomed here but no longer would be, and there is no negative effect beyond users no longer being able to add new answers to the question.
To make a somewhat silly simile, I would ask you to think of this not as a lack of respect for site history, but as the equivalent of preserving relics of old - they will last and can be viewed, but no longer be touched or used by members of the public.