That may be true but I think it had a much more intellectual and mature tenor to the conversation. Back then there were detailed and active communities for almost any hyper niche topic. I wasn't on in the PS2 days though so no idea that far back. I know back then I read physical magazines and had no concept of sales at all.
Now
that's comedy! If you were a PlayStation fan around here (or most gaming outlets for that matter) during the 2006-2010 period (just an example), it was anything
but that. The difference was people just dealt with it. They sucked it up. Today, folks seem to let things get to them
far more. I've watched GAF users (again, as an example) have complete meltdowns simply for challenging their viewpoint, claiming you are "mental", have "reading comprehension issues/are slow as fuck", and reaching a point of total vessel busting.
As some already mentioned, there are tools in place to handle folks you don't engage with/see. We have them, Twitter has them, etc.