>> Anyone can still do this today

But no-one would ever find it - which might be fine - and that seems like a waste.

>> to expect that much quality content from volunteers to keep flowing.

This is a big change in perspective & expectation. The original web was not volunteers doing work for others, but humans voluntarily doing work to share with others.

Nobody could find it back in 1994 either! That was part of the fun. You stumbled on a webring or somebody's curated oracle and found a bunch of interesting weird tiny websites.