This "people like me" here hasn't voted for not putting perfectly fine power plants to good use and especially not for using coal instead.

I'm also not aware of people claiming it's too late because of practical reasons "for decades". On the one hand I don't think the narrative was centered around practicality, but ideology. The opponents of nuclear didn't want to take the risks and didn't want the responsibility of nuclear waste. There was also a lot of fearmongering which had nothing to do with practicality either. On the other hand the fate of nuclear in Germany was only sealed when Fukushima happened, that's not even one decade ago iirc. There was a chance of returning to nuclear, at least with emerging technologies, up until that point. But when it happened, the last opposition to ending nuclear capitulated (and probably filled their pockets with money from the coal lobby).

This whole debate about nuclear in Germany was brought up again by populists. The damage is done and it will not be undone. It will take years to even reactivate the usable power plants we have right now and there is zero interest by companies to build new ones. You'd have to state-fund it pretty much 100%, which no one will support. And even if you did, renewables are still cheaper. The people who have maintained these plants are retired or have new jobs by now. There will be mass protest basically for sure if you change course now. It won't happen and doesn't make sense.