It’s no secret that capitalism basically ruined geek culture by deliberately milking franchises, manufacturing and pandering to audiences with zero standards (lookin at you Marvel, AAA gaming), and sacrificing performance over whatever trendy AaA bullshit there is. I just got a shower thought, does this apply to everything else in general, one example I can think of is comedy nowadays (though YT’s terrible moderation didn’t help in ruining it), fashion, electronics nowadays, and even fuckin activism.
They made a chemical to change the color of peaches to make them look ripe even when they’re not. And of course there’s selective breeding that makes food bigger in exchange for less flavor.
Like with programming, what you measure is what you get.