People are yearning for solid, mechanical things, real things with weight and substance and visible ingenuity.
All the gee-whiz electronic effects and games, and the devices that produce them have ceased to be all that interesting. They’re just appliances now.
The fun stuff shows craftsmanship, clever clockwork, moving parts, metal and wood. I’ve seen limited edition computers done up like very early televisions, wooden iPad enclosures, even a giant carved wooden earphone as an artistic solution to speakers for an iPhone.
Steampunk is an outgrowth of this yearning.