Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

To go a step further, I think the UK has suffered badly from the Clarkson era and style of Top Gear and sensationalist/entertaining car reviewing. I meet and talk to so many people who have never driven more than a Focus or equivalent but regurgitate facts about cars they've never even sat in, let alone driven.

You're not wrong... coupled with the fact that a large percentage of the modern "car guy" population are just buying whatever borderline self driving rocketship ticks the golf club membership box and have never really driven an analogue car has really changed the context of what it means to be a "driver".

It's the same old conversation that goes around so often of "why won't manufacturers make a lightweight, stripped back, drivers car for cheaps" but sadly the common punter doesn't actually want to feel like they're driving a car, they just want to talk about it as if they are.