This is all good info: it's completely different from how I see the game, but you're probably more representative.Yeah, I'm just going based purely of feel. To me it also seems like the game is more about drawing fouls now than being fouled while legitimately trying to score, and that slows down the pace and also seems a bit like gaming the system to me. Again, that's purely one uninformed man's opinion.
The other issue - if you're a star-based league and you don't have likeable stars, it can be really annoying for the viewer. I still sports-hate LeBron, but I used to generally dislike him and if every broadcast features references and ads with him or Kobe (who I hate hate) or other players you're not really into, it gets kind of exhausting.
Like, the NFL is much more enjoyable now that I don't have to see Peyton Manning's face like 10 times every Sunday even when I'm not watching his games or hear announcers waxing over his greatness.
Overexposure is fine if you have a Shaq or Magic or Jordan, but I don't know if the sport has anyone with that combination of skill and magnetism who isn't also on a team I strongly dislike (I know that's arbitrary).
The drawing fouls thing: the percentage of scoring coming from fouls is actually down a bit from 15-20 years ago. This is mostly a Harden problem and nothing new. Watching Jordan live at the FT line sucked when I was a teen too.
I think the marketable personality thing is an issue: Steph is/was that (not coincidentally, great ratings for those teams, even if I disliked it). Giannis should be that, but the market probably hurts. Zion 110% is exactly that in all ways and is perfect, which is why the league planned to market the shit out of him. Unfortunately, whether his body can hold up enough to let him be marketed is an open question.