God fits nice into this POV, in a way. Because our social reality makes this hard to do, at least in some ways, we invent someone we can care about as much as we like. Whereas with real people we can only care for them under certain conditions.
And moreover, I'd say a fundamental issue of modern society is that we have to do a lot of things for a lot of people we do not care about and that makes it more difficult to find meaning.
What is meaning then? Something that isn't you and that you hold very dear, something which is important to you and which is worth of effort to you.
That can be ideals, a hobby, religion, and yes I think most of all other people. I suppose it can also be a kind of image of oneself. But that sounds rather unhealthy.
So no I don't think meaning is about merely understanding reality or understanding anything (though that is one way one can look for it). Meaning is to have something worth living for which does not just exist in the moment but transcends and stays as a reason to exist and do stuff. Sometimes this may be a small and trivial and not very powerful and not very lasting affair. Sometimes it may be something very powerful and reliable.
It in any case is something people will enjoy to have and to not have it can have pretty undesirable consequences. Though one can always try to ignore it.
