I think there was a lot more novelty and shock/awe in amazing new things when we didn't have youtube channels and social media of every new thing immediately poring over ever detail of it.
For instance, when ID first released DOOM to the Internet and BBSes it was something you discovered on your own and among your local community of people who had network access and a PC capable of running it, there weren't hundreds of youtube channels playing full-1080p playthroughs of the entire game, etc.
Selective ignorance might be something worth cultivating.
When I was young (middle/high school), I devoured print strategy guides for video games and printed (hah) source code in library books. It was hard to come by, and just as nuanced/wrong as solutions/strategies/source you now find on the web/GitHub/etc.
In the last few years, I've stopped indulging in play-throughs, guides, or other experiences-on-rails. My sense of awe at discovering things has increased dramatically as a result. Not quite where it was thirty years ago, but getting there.
Exactly, the novelty of finding something our for yourself. And lots of times the anticipation of waiting for something itself used to be so fun. As you mentioned, with everything being reviewed to the minutest detail, all of that novelty is gone now.
For instance, when ID first released DOOM to the Internet and BBSes it was something you discovered on your own and among your local community of people who had network access and a PC capable of running it, there weren't hundreds of youtube channels playing full-1080p playthroughs of the entire game, etc.