i am 37. i didn’t start buying better/newer equipment til about 4 years ago. before that it was the pawn and thrift store life, $200 active monitors, etc. my parents’ stereo (where i started) wasn’t special either - i wanted a walkman, cd discman, boombox etc. point being, spending thousands on a home stereo is simply out of reach for most people until they get to a certain point in their careers and their lives more generally. i lived in party houses with musicians for most of my 20’s; as long as we could get loud it didn’t matter much. now i’m a dad and my priorities are different when it comes to playback, and i finally have an income that allows me to buy some pretty nice stuff if i plan carefully.
from my perspective things are improving. there’s a ton of streaming oriented gear coming out all the time, the entry level turntable market is going crazy, cheap bookshelf speakers keep improving, cheap-but-decent quality headphones and dacs sell out the wazoo. people are getting into it. just my .02c on the op. cheers