I loved that scene because every new model meaningfully changed the way technology allowed me to interact with the world. Grayscale -> color, adding a camera, adding enough storage and pixels for media, etc.
Eventually smartphones became indistinguishable black rectangles, where a new year's hardware means nothing. Then smartphone software became so mundane that I don't really care whether I'm running the latest OS because I can't tell the difference.
Tech is maturing. We're no longer fumbling around, looking for new local maxima - we're getting closer and closer to the global maximum of what today's technology can accomplish. We're certainly not there yet, but the exploration phase is over until something new comes along to upend the game.
And technology has left enthusiasts behind. Normal folks don't want their smartphone to have an experimental hardware module with no clear use. They get excited that the latest social media app lets them play a better status game with their peers, or that a group scheduling app saves X minutes per week across their team.
I don't think there's a way out. Niche/fringe technologies can still be very exciting - the crypto crowd is having a blast, and PinePhone has some people excited. But if crypto doesn't catastrophically implode, it'll eventually mature enough that all the fun parts have already been solved and all that's left is boring, marginal improvements, where folks try to eek out another dollar.