>> Makes me wonder if that’s part of the reason behind the trends of seasoning everything to death lately. There are no subtle flavors any more. Everything is loud and crass. TV, movies, fashion, food. <<
I would also blame mass-production techniques, which are a blessing in the sense that they make quality food affordable, but they usually result in the loss of subtler flavors. Compare authentic “water” mozzarella with the cheap stuff they slap on pizzas. Now, they are even starting to charge more for bland “eye” steaks because they are so lean, because no-one understands that well-marbled meats have flavor. I’m told in the old days, even those good cuts were as flavorful as venison (but less gamey), but even the whole cow has less flavor.
Some stuff is even undergoing 2nd generation blanding: when I was very young, all beer had become “Budweiser.” (Not to knock Bud; it’s still better than Coors.) Then came the microbrewery movement. Now all the microbreweries are just expensive, bland or weird-flavored crap in labels designed by 12-year-olds.
I didn’t really connect the dots... the unsubtle flavorings are to conceal the lack of real, natural, subtle flavor.
And the microbreweries went the way of independent films; just mega-breweries niche marketing unusual flavors, the way that “independent films” were full of Hollywood stars by the 1990s.