That said, regardless of whether or not you think AI is a bubble, you should seriously consider adapting your workflows at least in the near-term if your job still mostly involves writing code. Love it or hate it, the role is changing.

Also late 2000s "everything is bloomy", which to be fair definitely caused some unintended UX issues

You can obviously build a game with a more "cartoonish" style in UE5, the engine doesn't stop you from doing that. However I don't think this era of games will be very visually memorable.

I think the reason I feel this way is I've sorta plateaued as a developer these last two years. I've found and settled on a particular way of doing things, which works well (hence the reviews), but I've become less inclined to make risky technical decisions or break the rules.

Feels like a lazy dog day for sure!