Yes. Really the same as it always was.
When it comes to games, some people have always only enjoyed the more soft, fluff, happy type games. For them games are just a random social activity with friends: sit around, laugh, tell jokes and bond with each other. On one really keeps score in the game, and it really does not matter as everyone 'wins' just by playing the game and being there.
Others want a much more serious game, with the real goal of giving themselves a challenge to over come. They want to use their skills and be challenged, and for games in general they want to 'win'.
So, for just RPGS, in modern types there has been a shift towards the more soft, fluff, happy type game play. To mirror the same "popular" shift in society.
And this Fog settles over RPGS. About a third of us, as always, play the hard, challenging game. The other third only plays the more soft, fluff, happy type games. And mot game designers, authors and such are in this third. So most games are written in the more soft, fluff, happy type style. This leaves the last third, the undecided, in a bit of a spot. They likely know more soft, fluff, happy type gamers. And the rules are written in the more soft, fluff, happy type games. So most of this last third do lean heavy on to the more soft, fluff, happy type games. After all, chances are that most of the DMs they know only run the the more soft, fluff, happy type game play style. So they have to like it, just to play.
But when given a chance many in the 'undecided' third....and even a few in the die hard "the more soft, fluff, happy type game play" is the only way to play third....do find that they really like the more challenging game.