I can't speak for 2013 and am not an OG, but the culture around Bitcoin was far more exciting during the 2018-2019 period.
Instead of simping for politicians, obsessing over zombie treasury companies, and arguing about things like op_return that don't matter, the discussion was serious and engaging. Lightning was just getting started, the earliest coinjoin implementations were launching, soft forks were actively being worked on and debated, the podcasters weren't all promoting penny stocks... It was a better time, imo.
This isn't hipster to recognize. We can be be glad that bitcoin is still alive, but there's more to bitcoin than NGU.
There's many ways in which things are better: Nostr exists now, there's a lot more sustainable funding for open source developers, bitcoin has been massively de-risked and normalized as an investment, and we've all gotten richer...but we've lost a lot too.
