No question that some tangible (I avoid using “real” for economic reasons) wealth evaporated, but nothing on the order of this alarmist headline.
If you took part of your paycheck and invested it in the market and then it disapeared, it was a tangible loss. I lost plenty that way. It existed enough that I could have taken it out of the market before the crash and purchased something “real” like a car or a house. That ain’t happening now.