Except we started there and moved here. When everyone started using the Internet heavily they brought their shopping malls and gated communities with them. That's fine; like everything else, there's great stuff at the edges.
Agreed. The internet feels much more silo-ed than today than years ago. I think quality search is a huge part of it. When the means of navigating is monopolized and users have mostly one point of entry, they only step into those SEO constructed rooms that branch off from that one door. A few large platforms penetrate the consciousness outside of the main doorway (most brink their walled garden with them). I think there is more interesting stuff than there ever has been, but our points of entry have taken over and behaviorally shielded us from it. I think a lot of the curiosa of the early web was enabled by shitty indexing and search. It's still all there though, but the vast majority of users have no idea.