I don't think this forum has gone soft, I think it has gone more mainstream. My perspective it the major first world countries. I don't think many folks from Zimbabwe or Afghanistan frequent this site.
The vast majority of us, going down to lower middle and upper poor class, get in our reliable cars and drive paved roads to a stable job. We work in safe environments, and if they are not safe, it can be resolved with a phone call or two. We work our shift and drive our reliable car on paved roads back to our weather tight home. We might stop by a well stocked grocery store to pick up some affordable food. We walk into those weather tight homes, turn on the tv, take a leak and flush the toilet with running water, and have a nice dinner. Over dinner we discuss how bad our lives are and we need to improve them. We decide to finance our way out of this hard life. We open monthly subscriptions to various services, we finance a nicer reliable car, and upgrade to a bigger weather tight house, we pay someone to mow the nice lawn. We eat out because our jobs are too stressful to worry about cooking, we watch tv instead of interacting with our neighbors, we build 6' wooden fences to keep people out instead of getting to know who lives next door, then we drink or other such indulgences because we are fighting loneliness and stress from jobs and stress.
I think Pete's original message is for us to take a step back and analyze our situation. We are social beings. Why are we actively configuring our lives to remove the social aspect? Why are we trying to outdo our neighbors instead of getting to know them? We are also physical beings. Why are we sitting in an office chair in order to make more money to pay someone to do our physical things that we are perfectly capable of? Why drive a 2 ton vehicle 1.5 mile to the store when we can walk it in half an hour or cycle it in 4 minutes? What will your kids have better memories of, the well made movies 3 times a week, or the same hours of your poorly played ukulele and singing?
We all know the guy who works 60+ hours a week to afford the $50k truck that pulls the $40k boat to the lake on the weekend, and always seems stressed out. We also know the guy who drive a reasonable used car, no boat, but has a good relationship with his friends and neighbors. Who do you want to be, and who do you want to spend your time with?