Our DC also experienced the incidental benefit of moving from class of covid to class of pre-covid for HS graduation, but since we were homeschooling by that point, it made a little bit less of a difference. Though DC did get to experience a final HS musical and prom (since our district allows homeschoolers to participate in extra/co-curriculars, and an in-district friend invited DC to the prom), which were both cancelled this year. (Sadly, the musical was actually cancelled days before opening night--after the final dress rehearsal, but before the first show.)
Driving also is decreasingly important as a social marker, in my observation. My DC didn't get a license until well after the minimum age, nor have many of DC's friends. Many of my students don't seem to have any urgency about driving (with the exception of those eager to go out on senior year internships, which require personal transportation means).
Likewise, while DC has long been described as unusually mature, early on (K-3 grade age), DC actually was described as unusually immature in behavior. Curiously, this was where being young for grade was interpreted generously. One teacher in fifth grade (two years young for grade) commented to me that sometimes immature behaviors were observed, but then she would remind herself that this was expected--and thus not problematic--because of DC's actual age. Which speaks to how critical the adult response to acceleration is. The same behavior could easily have been interpreted by a different teacher as "proof" that acceleration was inappropriate and potentially harmful to social development. In this case, I think our child also picked up some not-wholly-deserved benefit of the doubt, as DC has also consistently ticked many of the boxes for ADHD (formally undiagnosed). (It does help that this placement was the result of a school-initiated simultaneous whole-grade skip with additional SSA, with the backing of the school administrator.)
We also avoided much of the potential for social asynchrony in the high school years by homeschooling from 8th grade on, during the most awkward tween and early teen years. By the time DC was back in classrooms, it was as a DE student in university, at a point in physical development where some people might have wondered, but most would not assume an age difference, but also at a point in social development and confidence that DC could be upfront about being younger, and still move easily in the group as a peer, and even a leader. Late in high school, DC chose to undo one of the early skips, but then ended up taking a full schedule of DE college courses senior year. Which also points out the value for some learners of using DE as a way of addressing academic challenge without fully accelerating nominal grade placement, as this is an option that is available to any student in our state. (So much so that there is a dedicated office in admissions at the small state 4-year where much of this took place for us, with dozens of enrolled students showing up at the DE orientation & registration sessions.)
