None taken, I know I'm old.

The idea that the game should actually provide options, not just be home-brewed into acceptability does go back to 3e, when RaW and 'Player Entitlement' became things, but it hasn't exactly gone away.
I disagree. That goes back to the beginning of the game. From OD&D (when we had classes added and added) through AD&D (with Dragon's "NPC" classes and Oriental Adventures and Unearthed Arcana and 3PP) and arguably reached a crescendo in 2e (Complete X, Player's Options).
The idea of fixing up your D&D, rather than expecting TSR to do it for you, goes all the way back, heck, the D&D ball got rolling when Arneson fixed up Chainmail. We didn't have so many or so complete or such professionally produced games back in the day, so we sought out or/and created all sorts of variants.
I would say again that this was a
hobbyist game from the beginning, so it makes sense that people have always tinkered with it. Anything from adjusting rules, to creating whole new games (most of the early RPGs were simply massive variants of OD&D that were created from DM's notes that evolved over time).
But that impulse has never changed. It's not like people stopped writing their own stuff with 3e. The D&D community has always had a high tolerance for homebrew.
That doesn't make us better than WotC era fans who got more, and may want (or want back) still more.
There's no "better" or "worse." But there is "realistic." As I wrote before, you are either looking for a solution, or you are looking to air your grievance.
Start by understanding what it is you are actually doing. Because if you believe that you are truly affecting change, and that any day now WoTC is going to release the
Tony Vargas Warlord, well, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you. If, on the other hand, you are just airing grievances, then you might want to be a little less grouchy to people who say that there are solutions.