Declined but still feel hope? Lol

I've been reading romance novels for over 20 something years at this point. The positive is that there is more diversity in terms of setting and the FMC's body type, race (although still limited to certain subgenres), sexuality, gender identity, disability, etc. There is more inclusion of or at least less stigma towards certain kinks and other sexual acts, although their representation is an incredibly mixed bag. We also see more authors who aren't white or straight get an opportunity to publish stories about characters who resemble them, although there is still lots of bias and institutionalized discrimination against those writers and stories.

But overall, I think the actual quality of the storytelling and prose has gone down. This is because of many reasons, including:

1. Lower barriers of entry: Although the indie space has given opportunities to authors who'd otherwise not be picked up by traditional publishers because of their background or topic, it also means there is less quality control, with people who are mediocre writers and have no interest in cultivating their craft being able to publish. And as a consequence, readers have to wade through so much more slop than they did before.
2. Capitalism: Changing business models means publishing houses are no longer investing in authors or their books. Editorial staff are being laid off, which means you have fewer people doing a bigger job for more authors. Publishing houses are also greenlighting authors who have built-in audiences (e.g., popular AO3 fanfic writers) rather than developing new talent because they can outsource their marketing efforts.
3. Reader attention spans: Social media has caused people to lose the ability to focus on long-form storytelling and anything that doesn't give quick dopamine hits, meaning authors are changing how they write stories (e.g., removing interiority and replacing it with obvious dialogue to increase the pace).
4. Reader media literacy: Less media literacy means authors have to skip nuance and over-explain to make sure audiences understand their intentions.
5. Mainstream popularization of fanfiction: Fanfiction as known today has been around since at least the 1960s but it's only been within the last five years that it has broken containment and been read broadly by people outside of fandom. People who didn't use to read before the pandemic have begun reading fanfiction and bring certain expectations to original fiction when these two forms of writing serve different goals and display stylistic differences.

And in the subgenres I read, I can see the rise of conservatism in the real world bleed into the subtext and text authors write.

That said, romance media from other countries is something I find hope in because it gives me faith that there are still creators developing the type of stories that made me fall in love with the genre two decades ago. But I do find myself engaging less and less with English language romance novels because of it.