> But if we go only 15 years in the past, to 2011, we find the same price per GB of DRAM as today, so that affordable computers had only 16 GB of DRAM.

Uhm, in 2011 4 GB RAM was the standard for PCs (some were still sold with only 2 GB), 8 GB was already enthusiast territory. 16 GB was a professional workstation.

Simple programs with simple functionality becoming massive and networked and somehow less functional is the other side of shrinkflation. The reason they became huge was developer convenience i.e. they cut costs.