Survivorship bias, there is no indication that older movies were better on average. While I can agree that constraints breed creativity as they say, the opposite can also be true; look at software, one can also theoretically code an unlimited number of things, and from that we get people creating software and connecting devices to a never before seen level of scale and creativity.

Agreed that technology opens up possibilities. If we continue on the movie analogy, moving from practical effects to CGI opened up possibilities - however it still had limitations (realism, uncanny valley, cost, render time etc.) - which pushed people to be strike a balance. However AI generated stuff gives you unlimited possibilities - whatever you imagine, becomes the scene. I recently saw a AI-augmented tourism video of a major tourist destination - it was vomit inducing. Of course, one may argue that it's just lack of art direction - same effect could be had with more traditional methods, but I still believe cost / possibilities constraints pushed people in the right direction. Maybe it's the luddite in me talking.