20 years ago internet was a whole different place anyway. You'd set up a useful website as a hobby, it'd be monetized with either ads or a subscription if it was truly game changing, but it wouldn't be invasive, if it makes you a living that's great, if it doesn't then you still have a day job. They were hobby projects. Now all the easy niches are filled already, you need to put a lot more effort into building something that people would want to use. That costs money. You start off by amassing costs, meaning you either sink a ton of your own money or investor funds into it. Now you truly do have to 'acquire users at any cost' and then monetize the shit out of them.