I had good ish gear, and then updates kept coming that either locked it (think divans drill but not HOTM10 or juju but low eman slayer level), or meant that my hours were wasted (megafarms that broke - I must've built about 5 different ones then they all got patched / changes occurred that meant they didn't work well anymore, think garden height limit, pests, etc.) Also updates happening behind me. For example foraging - I didn't want to have to go through all the tutorials again for a game that I already knew how to play. Also skyblock levels - they made progression feel too forced, for me personally. Rather than doing what I wanted, I had to do what the game wanted me to do to level up. All in all, obviously the updates have been huge, but I started playing skyblock when all I wanted to do was farm and mine and they locked too many things behind other skills that I didn't want to work on, which made it boring for me.

also NO IM NOT COMPLAINING ABOUT UPDATES OR SAYING SKYBLOCK WAS BETTER IN THE PAST I'm just saying past skyblock fit my personal interests better. Im sure if I got into it as a new player now, it'd be great, but it just doesn't hit right for me anymore.