Ditto! Ditto? Ditto.
Aside from the whole "small communities aren't where it's at any more" truth, I think Apple is significantly less interesting than it was fifteen years ago. The rumor will was more interesting, Apple's new products were more awe-inspiring, and the overall industry wasn't nearly as homogenized as it is today. The normalization of Apple's products, and I think to a lesser degree the loss of Jobs' showmanship, has reduced the excitement and things to talk about.
I haven't actually been excited about an Apple product release since the original iPhone, and that was eleven years ago! The iPad still just feels like an oversized iPhone to me. The Apple Watch never caught my attention and still feels like an overpriced toy. The Home Pod (and it's predecessor the iPod Hi-Fi) is ho-hum. macOS is on a slow, stable evolution with rarely any flashy, headling-grabbing features, which is good but doesn't spark many conversations. All of the other products have just had moderate and totally predictable incremental updates, some of which feel like steps backwards (I'm looking at you, MacBook lineup, among other).
I even look around at other websites, forums, subreddits, etc. and the volume of enthusiastic Apple chat seems to be dialed-down across the board. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
|