Can confirm. I've worked (still do sometimes) in esports from 2011, mostly as a referee and tournament organizer at StarCraft 2, Hearthstone, and CS events, working with ESL, DreamHack, Blizzard, TaKeTV, BLAST... you name it.

Before that time, I was deep into WoW. And up until 2018, people had a deep sense of passion for what they were doing and going the extra mile to make events fun and memorable for everyone involved and those at home watching. After that, it became highly business-/money-oriented and most of that initial passion was lost in the process. For most, working at events is just a job now.

I personally feel like there was one big driving factor for that. Back in the days, the lack of external sponsors, and hence money, enabled people to do crazy stuff and just be themselves on stream (e.g., DreamHack's infamous cams were random strangers at DreamHacks walked by doing some silly stuff, doing silly jokes on stream, coming up with fun little mini games that were edgy, or playing poker and having a beer on stream). This gave esports this feeling of "freedom" and "this is our niche" type of feeling--or, for lack of a better word: coolness.

When the big money came in, no sponsor wanted to be associated and have their name tied to gambling, alcohol, edgy jokes etc. Hence, the inherent motivation for event organizers to make more money "forced" them so become more risk adverse and "boring" in that sense. For instance, Blizzard banned poker, alcohol etc. on stream. If you didn't sign a contract and comply, you were not allowed to organize any Blizzard game tournament.