“What impact does the Internet have on ham radio? “
Internet is done alone. Hams get together. I remember going to the Ham radio hut next to the Greensboro NC airport to take classes. W4GG.
Ham is like the ultimate electronic gear geekdom.
It can be for folks into that sort of thing and certainly plenty are. There are more than a couple rigs on the market well in excess of $10,000 - for just a rig.
I have spent something close to that more or less for all the rigs & other gear I ever bought in 31 years, including computers I used exclusively within the hobby (one of the computers being the single largest expense).
IMO once you get past the range of something close to a grand or maybe two the return in increased performance and usefulness rapidly diminishes and the true product becomes more often than not a bragging right.
There are no doubt exceptions and also buyers with very specific interests who can justify the huge feature sets from a pure economic standpoint. But we don't now and probably should never limit our market choices to pure need and nothing more because we know that concept has failed 100% of the times it has been tried.
I can drool over this FTDX9000/MP or that IC-7800 with the best of them, and can dream even bigger without much arm twisting, but the flush and cash starved are both more likely to bring home a round steak than a Porterhouse on payday. For the exceptions we still have the Porterhouse though so everybody gets what they want.