Well at first you logged in and had no idea what to do. There were companies putting their proprietary frontend first (AOL, compuserve etc) and also game some starting help. Then bigger resources arose and (for me) the awareness the layer in between is unnecessary.

To be honest, all the stuff you said is still there but it's more niche than the corporate or big known offers.

E. G. You can host something wild and 'nobody' really knows it exists.