I don't know, I agree that production value has jumped in the last decade but these trends are often cyclical. The overproduced boy bands of the 50s and early 60s gave way to aesthetically simple folk singers like Bob Dylan, and the shiny, glittery pop-rock of the 80s got swept away in a cloud of secondhand smoke by Grunge. I believe another one of those counterculture, indie backlashes is due to hit soon.
It is really crazy the level of knowledge that goes into production today and I don't see it going back. New grunge will re-amp in the computer if for no other reason than because software amp sims are cheaper than hardware and your settings/values are instantly perfectly recallable in a sim.
Even modern metal requires insane specific technical knowledge nowadays. Dance genres are to the point I don't even understand the differentiation (in xyz the kick drum transient click goes 'clihhhhhck' but in xyy it goes 'cllihhhhhckk').
Arguably the indie scene is bigger than it’s ever been. I think the issue is more that, like social media, streaming music services like Spotify and YouTube keep everyone in their bubble. Even if you try to break out the algorithm pulls you back in.
Radio was a much different paradigm that had to respond to changing desires or risk losing revenue and going out of business. So it had to react to listener desires with much more finite resources and that led to (I think) larger cultural shifts within music than we see now.
