They went from being bad compared to everything else to now feeling good compared to everything else.

Basically they stayed static and the rest of the internet worsened around them and our perspectives are now skewed.

What used to feel like a spammy content farm is actually not that bad now that we have seen real spammy content farms, like the SO clones that just take SO posts, rip out important css elements so it is harder to read, and slap as many ads as the ad networks allow them around it and then throw up exit intent banners and crypto-mining javascript.

Now just a normal content farm feels like a breath of fresh air when we deal with those garbage sites as alternatives.