i share the sentiment that earlier digital art had such an honesty to it but i pin the dissociation in the modern scene more on how today's culture (or rather its war) discourages earnestness in favor of irony and "one-upping" people through politically fueled spite or otherwise
tl;dr the old fandom customs of "doing it because you like it" is a lost art imo

Nowadays Instead of people just making and uploading what they want for fun, it has become a climb to the top as not to get buried. So people just resort to chasing trends that come and go at a lightning pace instead of something original or creative hoping for a shred of popularity. Seems nothing makes a long term impact anymore. I remember people complaining about the "waifu of the month" thing going on a few years back on here where a specific character exploded in popularity just to be abandoned… Now its "Tiktok challenge of the two days" or something like that. I hate to see creating internet """content""" nowadays treated as more of a business then a hobby. ;-;