Autolocking Threads that have not had a response in over a year

[Sotaris]

Yes, so instead to keep threads from being locked users will necro threads annually or biannually. Then again, that's done anyway. I don't think this would really solve anything.

Could this process even be automated on these forums in the first place?

This forum looks like it based on phpBB (or very similar to it) so yes.
Also possible with various other methods like RPA.