I don't think it's just the fact that these games are completely documented and the optimal min-max solutions well known, people have changed over the last 20 years as well.
Attention spans have been wrecked by social media / smart phones / Tiktok. People don't form long term bonds with others nearly as often, both in games and in real life. Most people don't want an adventure, they want to follow the premapped treadmill of optimization. We're also much older now with kids and jobs, so having less times drives the desire to optimize the time available.
Like the famous saying, "you can't go home again".
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