Citizen scientists do make discoveries - we often discover NEO's, comets and supernova to assist scientists who have limited capacity - I've seen some great work here and lots of technology + telescope convergence of being able to scan thousands of plate solves a night using GPU to find near earth objects. This part of citizen science is doing well...
but astrophotography, it used to be able the wonder of capturing it - regardless if you prefer visual with your eye or assisted seeing with a camera. There used to be a aura of DIY - find a camera, adapt it, take some photos, share them, have people say good job.
Now its really about memes, trolling and who can get the most Instagram's.. and that's kind of depressing.
The people doing citizen science are way outnumbered by the vocal ones comparing their debt, their investment and their preference of equipment as a superiority complex and social media feeds into that and supports it with the algo favoring the controversy and the fights
It was a bitter sweet day to sell off my remote observatory and get my nights back...
but the passion for the heavens is still there
however, that "eyepiece vs a camera" thing is very much part of the problem with the hobby... it just shouldn't matter.
