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How old are you?
Sets are not so much different than in the 80s/90s on that aspect.
In the 80s there were Town sets like there are now City sets, except that now they tend to contain much more parts than their equivalent.
Of course there are new parts, but many are not so specific, they are often quite re-usable. But indeed the more different part there are, the less basic plates/bricks you find. You can do much more advanced/realistic things now than 40 years ago, but you usually need more parts to do it too.
If you compare the generic brick boxes or the "Basic" line from the 80s with today's sets, it is an unfair comparison: nowadays they still make these, with the "Classic" line for rather standard re-usable parts with many bricks, or with the "Creator" for something between these generic bricks and the playsets, with sets that allow to do more easily different things (like their 3-in-1 sets).
For example in my house made in Lego ( https://antp.be/lego/moc/house.php ), there are a lot of the details I could never have done even 20 years ago, as many parts were added since then. Same for the colors, if you compare with basic ones from the 80s.
Of course more specialized sets like the Speed Champions are probably less re-usable alone, but on the other hand when you mix these with other sets you have a lot of small parts that can be quite helpful. For example https://brickset.com/sets/76918-1/McLaren-Solus-GT-McLaren-F1-LM introduced some parts in orange, which are useful for the Yaris I'm making at that scale
Photos not yet online, I still have to do that, and also get some of these orange parts.
I also still have to put the Toyota stickers that I got via another Speed Champions set, https://brickset.com/sets/76901-1/Toyota-GR-Supra
Sets are not so much different than in the 80s/90s on that aspect.
In the 80s there were Town sets like there are now City sets, except that now they tend to contain much more parts than their equivalent.
Of course there are new parts, but many are not so specific, they are often quite re-usable. But indeed the more different part there are, the less basic plates/bricks you find. You can do much more advanced/realistic things now than 40 years ago, but you usually need more parts to do it too.
If you compare the generic brick boxes or the "Basic" line from the 80s with today's sets, it is an unfair comparison: nowadays they still make these, with the "Classic" line for rather standard re-usable parts with many bricks, or with the "Creator" for something between these generic bricks and the playsets, with sets that allow to do more easily different things (like their 3-in-1 sets).
For example in my house made in Lego ( https://antp.be/lego/moc/house.php ), there are a lot of the details I could never have done even 20 years ago, as many parts were added since then. Same for the colors, if you compare with basic ones from the 80s.
Of course more specialized sets like the Speed Champions are probably less re-usable alone, but on the other hand when you mix these with other sets you have a lot of small parts that can be quite helpful. For example https://brickset.com/sets/76918-1/McLaren-Solus-GT-McLaren-F1-LM introduced some parts in orange, which are useful for the Yaris I'm making at that scale
Photos not yet online, I still have to do that, and also get some of these orange parts.
I also still have to put the Toyota stickers that I got via another Speed Champions set, https://brickset.com/sets/76901-1/Toyota-GR-Supra