Two other things that have changed.

First the technology! In the beginning very few GPSrs had maps, they held very few waypoints and no cache data. Now there is not much you can't do if you want to spend the money. Even wifi access was limited, now nearly every town has wifi at the library at minimal. And the software (GSAK/Cachemate/etc.) has improved dramatically. Auto navigation GPS has improved greatly and the price is more affordable, making it easier to drive from cache to cache. And then there's the cell phones. There are a lot fewer excuses for not having accurate and current cache data then there ever has been.

Secondly, my use of watch lists have changed as well, I'm not sure about other cachers? I used to watch every cache I found for a month or so, just to see who else found it and if they took anything from the cache I put in there, like my sig item. I would keep some of my favorite caches on my watch list indefinitely just to see who was finding it. Over time I have thinned out my watch list dramatically. I watch some of the challenge caches and One virt in DC, just to see who is passing through. I watch a few of my DNFs just to see what happens with them. But overall I pay less attention to most of the caches I find.