There's a high bar for writing
Written word is abundant now that computers can easily belch out arbitrary-length text that is only subtly distinguishable from natural language. This raises the bar for human writers who must compete in an ocean of content, prove their writing is organic, and communicate something of greater value or experience than what a device can vicariously collage.
Attention spans are short and reading has taken a back seat to watching. Even among people who still read, it is rarer to find anyone who voluntarily starts something they estimate will take more than five minutes. Add to that the discoverability problem, and writers face a serious uphill battle to publish something that will reach an audience. Print media might as well be the Ghost of Christmas Past, and it goes without saying the internet is flooded with LLM slop. Considering modern platforms are designed almost exclusively for video, photo, and audio media, blogging appears to be one of the last bastions of hope for writers.
Not only must aspiring writers fight for clicks, but they must then convince their readership that their words were not spouted from a bot. That may be simple for informal writing, since computers still seem to lack a deep understanding of humor and creativity, but it is more difficult when writing prose. Authors should think twice before using complex vocabulary, lists, and em dashes. This era of chatbot-McCarthyism may disenfranchise a generation of writers from pursuing the art. It was already difficult enough to write something coherent and worthwhile without the constant stress of having to signal one's own consciousness.
Expository writing is uniquely challenged. Surely a nearly-omniscient author trained on a corpus of text spanning the internet and print has more knowledge than the vast majority of humans. For a warm-blooded writer to entice anyone to read their work, they must bring a perspective that can only be achieved through experience, rather than reading and analyzing. Computers can still convey realism and emotion semi-successfully by regurgitating the words of talented people. More than ever before, writers should ask themselves: "Why would anyone read this?" They should strive to produce something so perfectly crafted that any edit or excerpt would be strictly less valuable than the whole.
The expected quality of writing has increased. The barrier to entry has risen. It is difficult to write something that others will read. It appears power has shifted from the writer to the reader, at least for readers disciplined enough to exercise discretion over what they read. Perhaps the middle class of writers are being swallowed, leaving only the low class slop and the top few who manage to adapt and overcome.