I didn't! (I assume your question was general and not specifically addressed to me.) And I agree with you about the "greatest generation" moniker. What did we call them before Brokaw got into the act? The WWII generation? The Depression/WWII generation? I can't remember.
It was general and not meant to be personal. And as to your question of what they called them before Brokaw got into the act, it depended on what the story was about and what liberal ideological point they were trying to make at the time.
I’m with both of you regarding the “greatest generation” . . . they were the first generation that voted in an outright “bread and circuses” type demagogue in FDR. Not so great.