Does anyone write C++ for fun? Every time I hear someone using C++ it is out of necessity for performance or work related. Does anyone genuinely like writing it and use it for their hobby projects because of simple preference?

C++ is my language of choice for about anything I want to scrap up, whether it is a hacky small tool or an actual open source project I work on. It's literally one of the best low-level programming languages.

I would like to somehow make the jump from writing basic C++ command line tools to GUIs, graphics, or something a little more complex. Right now I'm in tutorial hell basically and I am not sure how to make the jump to making the things that interest me. There is a large gap in skills necessary to programming C++ versus using the popular GUI and Graphics libraries, the syntax may be the same but it seems almost like a completely different language to me.

c++ is shit
i still use it for some stuff tho

Yeah, people do that. It's had a well-developed ecosystem since forever. It's not as fun as other languages because of its flaws, but people use it pretty extensively for pet projects. That said, when there are other competing languages in more common fields (like web backend or networking stuff), there really aren't that many people who prefer it.