I haven’t played since before Wizards started pushing Commander, at that time called EDH. I felt the Standard Format was a perfect setup to keep the game fresh and innovative while still making money, and the Legacy Format was perfect for the people who had cards that are no longer in Standard. I think the Commander Format killed a perfect system, and Wizards/Hasbro are just trying everything to make money and keep the game mostly unplayable with the licensed tie-ins.
I dunno if I’d say it’s never been good in those two decades. There’s definitely been a few great Standards Wizards lucked into, and they had a really strong run of limited formats for awhile too. It’s definitely been trending downward for the last two decades though, and largely because of unchecked corporate greed.