Things do change, it's true! I had such a good time at EVO a fear years ago. At Caesars Palace and shit! Like... we weren't doing it big like that back in these days.
So it's all changed, and it's absolutely worth embracing. We got all sorts of great indie games, and such a wider space to be in. You can have an entire gaming life outside of traditional corporate channels and just stay flooded with high quality content. That was a lot harder in the 90s. So I'm with you!