Vista era was when they were working on new driver models, graphics APIs, filesystem, a new shell, etc.
Sure most of them ended up sucking or didn’t ship at all, but at least they were trying to improve the core of the OS.
Since then it’s been 100% driven by marketing and adbusing their users.
It sounds basic, but I just keep an eye on new album reviews and give things a quick listen (on Spotify usually) if they have some good reviews.
For things I like I try to buy it on bandcamp so I can put it on my jellyfin server. If it’s hard to find DRM free I 🏴☠️.
Downside is I miss out on non-album releases.