the more popularity site gains, the less utility that it has.

I think there is a “goldilocks” popularity zone. Right around the time with shitty watercolour and the hell in a cell guy, and when people would ask obscure questions and some ridiculously specific professional would chime in. Those were the days.

I think it was really a matter of being able to downvote poor content and comments into non-existence so those people would never return.