I'm convinced that "all the content, everywhere, all the time" has made people worse consumers. We just give the companies money every month and if we have time, we consume whatever they decide to give us, and if they decide they don't want to show something anymore, we can't complain.

I'm becoming nostalgic for the Netflix DVD-by-mail era. Prioritizing your queue was important, since there were significant costs in returning a DVD and waiting for a new one to arrive. There was real anticipation in getting the next DVD, instead of binge-watching an entire series in one night without leaving the couch. We cared about what we watched since it wasn't readily available.

I don't know what you're talking about.

You can be just as intentional about your streaming services as you were about Netflix DVD's. You can prioritize your queue of upcoming shows, since there are significant costs in paying for a month of streaming you don't use. There's real anticipation in switching from Apple TV+ back to HBO, both of which generally release shows weekly, not at once. And then you can keep your list of movies you want to watch, and look forward to which ones will become available when you do switch streamers.

I mean, if you want to waste all your money subscribing to everything at once, then sure maybe everything is readily available. But most people I know, the thing they suddenly want to watch the most often isn't on a service they're currently subscribed to. So the anticipation you talk about continues to be a very real thing. Everything isn't readily available unless you've got lots of cash to burn.

And back in the day of Netflix DVD's, plenty of people watched network and cable TV just as mindlessly as you seem to think they do with streaming today... renting DVD's was an active intentional choice.