It's an awkward and elitist thing to say, but I believe it to be true: whatever is embraced by the masses, suffers in some ways. The expert/nerd internet was pioneering, weird, edgy, cooperative. The internet for the masses is...different. You'll see the same effect in movies, following "safe" formulas. Every movie must have a romantic side story, no matter how irrelevant. It must deliver to the broadest audience pos…
I might phrase it, "whatever is embraced by the masses becomes more appealing to the masses." Broadening in appeal is not necessarily worse, although it's surely worse from the perspective of the initial specialized interest group.
Yes, the Internet of yesteryear was more interesting to our type of people, but it had no appeal whatsoever to anyone else. The world is better off today with an Internet that billions find fun and useful, even if it's way less fun for us specifically.