With you on that. Photography came in at around 1830 (not sure). Then movies and phone. Millenia ahead of us had none of that. The social ramifications are enormous.
Amongst the handful of written classics there undoubtedly was a phalanx of really bad books, pamphlets, magazines etc. Indeed, there is likely an even greater pile of written rubbish - scribbles and sophomoric syntax - that never made it to a proper publisher.
The same holds true for almost every art form: for every Quadrophenia, we have scores of Yoko Ono albums. And for every Breaking Bad or Mad Men or Monty Python's Flying Circus that ultimately excels as a magnificent examination of the human condition, we have a gazillion horrid TV shows.
But I agree, the apex of every art form is to be celebrated and held up as a bellwether.