There was a hidden benefit in the old way: it avoided people making effort for things that weren't important. It took effort to make signal cut through noise. When it was low effort, it was obvious it was just noise and could easily be ignored.

Now low effort noise can masquerade as high effort signal, drowning out the signal for things that actually matter.

Direct relationships of trust matter more than ever now. You can't just trust that if something looks high effort that it actually is. You need to know the person producing it and know how they approach work and how they treat you personally. Do they cut corners all the time or only for reasons they clearly communicate? Do they value high quality work? Do they respect your time?