Does it still feel like there's an ITCH that hasn't been scratched in ages?

Home video game consoles have numbered generations.
NES was the third.
We're currently in the 9th generation.
Each generation lasts roughly about 6 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_video_game_console_generations

Is your favorite generation the one from when you first played games? Or is that unrelated and coincidental?

Is there a correlation with strength of a generation and society's financial state (2009 recession's effect on the 7th gen)?

I'm an aspiring developer and trying to answer the age old question of: Are games getting worse? In what aspects yes or no?

They absolutely are getting better audio&video fidelity, but that doesn't mean much to, at least me, if the music is less memorable, the bugs are all patched, everything is over-monetized games as a service, all the assets are generic, and it's all hyper-derivative remakes of remakes. I get that "fun is fun", but once you've played so many games, you look back at games from 2001 and wonder why the only innovations we have are mantling, $20 hats, and Microsoft is buying everything.

There are absolutely good games right now, on the way to par with number of good games of most previous generations. So why does it still feel like everybody I talk to, regardless of age, feels like there's an itch that hasn't been scratched in ages? And, why is this a contentious issue? Surely, there's a measurable way to debate seemingly subjective opinion of where we are.

Game devs: We see you guys working your asses off with very little appreciation. This isn't about you guys, as much as it's about risks (or lack of) that the industry takes as a whole.