I totally agree! I was thinking along these lines a few weeks ago how gravel is starting to feel like mtn biking of the 90s - minus the crazy doping of course.
The big difference now is the social media impact - these guys are recognizing a business model that is totally different where winning isn’t even the goal. To be honest, I do like that part of it - it can’t be all about winning, because having that single focus has plagued cycling for decades. I guess now it becomes how many ‘likes’ or ‘followers’ you can get. I suspect this will be the new dark side, where the competition shifts to eyeballs on Instagram or whatever site is being valued.