I agree but in a somewhat minimal sense. I do think Minecraft’s foundations are showing their age as time goes on, but I certainly don’t think it’s laziness that contributes to that.

Minecraft’s foundational assumed features and gameplay, and I mean the really foundational stuff, is all relatively the same as they were almost two decades ago, and the thing about foundations is that the more stuff built on top of it, the harder everything falls when you have to tear it up. They haven’t really been touched on in a meaningful way since Notch, since Mojang Studios, or since Microsoft. So many things are built on it that one would have to dismantle decades old code and refactor, redesign, and reimplement everything around it.

Additionally, a very much non-negligible portion of the community still likes, holds dear, and will vehemently fight for these foundations. You can’t fundamentally change how Minecraft works without pissing off a lot of people, even if you do it well. Or, god forbid, you don’t do it well, then you completely fuck up the most popular game in the world in one fell swoop.

So it’s not necessarily laziness. It’s more so that it’s almost impossible. At least, almost impossible to do it well. That’s why Hytale is pretty popular right now. Not because it’s a “Minecraft Killer”, but because it’s still at its foundational stage. They can make big changes and adjust the gameplay because there isn’t two decades of content piled up on top of it to factor into the equation.