Best analysis I've read on HN in a long while. Straight to the point.
My generation (the people between 35 and 50) is the most nostalgic about the good ole Web of yore, yet we are the generation that turned it into the ad-ridden cesspool we currently complain about.
What we're missing is not the Internet-that-was, rather our ability to spend time on useless projects in a wilder environment without thinking about the economic implication. In a way we just miss being young.
Our only advantage was that our parents' generation mostly didn't know what we were doing (especially here in Europe), so they certainly didn't expect for us to get a dime out of that blipety-bloop computers or whatever-they're-doing-in-their-room.
The good news is that a big part of that Web is still alive, in different ways, in small secluded forums and communities, inside multiplayer gaming platforms, and so on. The problem is that today EVERYTHING can be monetized, and everyone is sort of expected to do that. Just remove the layer that tech capitalism has ingrained in our brain, and you'll see the old internet is still here. We just changed, and capitalism adapted is all.
Do something for the sake of doing it. On the Internet or otherwise, and you'll magically get back at least a sliver of that feeling you're missing.