I was here some years ago, and have recently logged on again.
Maybe it's like not seeing a child for a few years. The changes are striking, whereas a parent who sees the child every day may not have noticed.
Of course E2 is a lot smaller than it used to be, and to some extent Wikipedia has taken over the "factual node" market (though I doubt Wikipedia tells you how to make a wallet out of duck tape!). On the other hand, the volume and the quality of the poetry and the fiction here have taken a quantum leap.
There were always good poets and good prose writers here, but I think we have more of them proportionately now, and some very very good ones.
I'm still primarily writing factual nodes because they interest me, and I have the chance to learn new things (I am not a biologist, all these invertebrates come out of research). Also I haven't written a lot of fiction, at least not intentionally ;) and I'd like to give it a try.