Olde Farte here.
LEGO should be bricks, and things should be built from bricks. Because of the limitations of the brick shape, if the finished item doesn’t look exactly like a rocket or a car or a building or a Millennium Falcon, well, that’s what the imagination is for. You want an exact replica? Buy a plastic model kit!
Making something that looks as close to the subject and yet built from bricks is the idea!
The company has always been clear that “LEGO” is both singular and plural. In fact, their preferred usage is that of an adjective, and the word should always be accompanied by a noun, e.g. LEGO brick, LEGO set, LEGO Group, etc.
I soft-agree that the profusion of specialized parts (“unique elements” in LEGO-speak) is excessive, but this seems extreme. If maximum imagination is the goal, we should never give kids anything other than sticks, rocks, and dirt.
Lego fun fact: they are the largest tire manufacturer in the world, because they make so many Lego sets with little tires included:
We took our kids to Legoland in Florida when they were younger. Lots of Lego-themed rides and things to do. But my kids’ favorite activity? We went to a restaurant for lunch that had big tables with Legos. The kids got chicken fingers and played with the Lego blocks, not wanting to leave. I’m thinking “ALL THEY DO AT HOME IS EAT CHICKEN FINGERS AND PLAY WITH LEGOS WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE 
”.
IMO there’s three LEGO spheres:
All 3 are OK, and LEGO is there for all of them. And as far environmental impact, LEGO tend not to enter the waste stream very often, due to their durability, cost, and compatibility.
Personally, I grew up as a #1 because that’s really all there was in the early 80’s. Turned into a #2 by my high school years. Was never a #3, too expensive a hobby for me. and I prefer more realistic models.
They weren’t at all ubiquitous when I was a kid either. (And to give you an idea of when that was, I was twelve in 1978.) But sometime in the 1970s we were visited by cousins who lived in Germany (I think the parents were civilian employees of the US Army) and they had some Lego with them. My mother thought it was a nice toy, so she contacted the American offices of Lego, then in Enfield, Connecticut, to ask them where they could be purchased. They very nicely sent one of those little boxes containing a few pieces. And then I cajoled my parents into buying one or two Lego sets. I think those cost around $150 or so back then, so not cheap. But I had them for a long time and I think they eventually went to my brother’s children (the earlier of whom was born in 1994).
So I loved lego as a kid and im now a dad an an uncle
And
Lego seem to have lost sight of the joy of invention.
Lego sets used to be simple enough that a 10 year kid could learn how to build something, then build a customised version, then invent their own.
The classic LL924 or LL928 showed you how to build a spaceship.
While todays star wars spaceship sets, for example, are very specifically designed and are too complicated to teach young kids techniques.
There’s also different ways people “play” with Lego.
I tend to have my kids build the sets following the instructions, so they learn the basic skills. I tend to like building various constructs, often at the request of my children ("Daddy! We need a motorcycle! Daddy! Elsa wants to build a six story condo next to her castle! “Daddy! Our Lego city needs a multi-modal container port!”)
My kids like having this big Lego scape to play around in. It’s sort of like a combination of role playing with the minifigs, building stuff, destroying stuff, acting out scenarios. Sort of like what the kids do in The Lego Movie.
As an adult, I’m more like Will Farrell’s character in that I kind of try to set everything up like a giant display or model train set and keep the sets mostly intact. But then the kids sweep through and it’s all chaos.
Actually, they lost their patent. Up until ~2010, Lego had the patent on plastic bricks that snap together, meaning they had no competitors for that particular market. They started shifting heavily towards licensed properties as a different way of maintaining market exclusivity: if they couldn’t be the only plastic brick manufacturer anymore, they could at least be the only plastic brick manufacturer making Hogwarts sets.
Like @msmith537 suggested, it all depends what you want to do with it. Believe me, you can take a set that builds a Marvel Quinjet, and make all sorts of wacky things with it. Add to that set some Star Wars scene or a Harry Potter Set and you can make even more things.
Kid Cheesesteak built me a Ship to Shore crane out of the extra parts that came with an off brand mini Lincoln Memorial set.
I don’t think I agree with that. I think what Lego has done is added more complex sets to appeal to older customers.
But for example, my kids have what I call the #60173 Meth Lab Airborne Bear Assault Playset.. There aren’t a whole lot of what I would consider “unique” bricks. Maybe the helicopter rotor part and canopy part. But those are used on a lot of different sets (mostly aircraft obviously). There are a lot of “minifig implements” like tools, handcuffs, etc. But all these bricks have the same studs and rods and clips and whatnot that let you combine them in all sorts of non-standard ways.
You’re just no longer limited to stacking bricks.
My son did inform me however, there is such a thing as “illegal building techniques”. They are techniques that, while possible, are not advised as they put stress on the bricks. For example, wedging a plate sideways between two rows of studs.
You’re just a few years younger than my little brother. His first Legos may have come from a trip my father took to Europe. I don’t remember when they were commonly found in US stores, or when I first saw one of those expensive sets. I remember the type of instructions they provided for making items from the basic pieces. There were a set of pictures showing the pieces going together, but some deduction was needed to see how the whole item was assembled. In some ways it later reminded my of the examples provided by the Unix ‘man’ command. The examples were often not of any useful version of a command but you could work out what each of the arguments and parameters would do and eventually construct the command you needed.
Never held a LEGO or even seen one in real life.
Tinker Toys and Erector sets where the bomb when I was growing up. Screws and nuts from erector sets where the nemesis of vacuum cleaners.
And of course, the real wood Lincoln Logs.
I learned a lot by playing with all of those.
My brother and I were “LEGO kids” in the 80s and we were constantly taking sets apart and building new things with them. For us, they were terrific toys for inspiring creativity. I probably invented a hundred spaceship designs with LEGOs.
I used to think the same thing. But it occurred to me the only thing I ever built were houses. I’m not even sure if I actually finished one. I’d rather build the Milenium Falcon. At least I have something neat to look at.
My older brother was 10 in 1968, and he had Legos (I was two years younger and a girl, so I got to play with the ones he didn’t want). We had recently moved back to the US after being out of the country since 1965, so I suppose it’s possible that we brought them back with us. But I remember playing with Legos at friends’ houses as well, so they certainly weren’t rare.
Lego was first introduced to US markets in 1961.
I don’t remember Lego being around when I was a kid. I was born pre-US Lego. Plus, my parents rarely bought us toys. We actually cut paper dolls out of the Sears catalog. Dang, sounds like I grew up in the Depression. But we really had to invent our own fun and games without benefit of any kind of brand name product.
I never even assembled any Lego product until around 10 years ago when I bought a dachshund kit. One Christmas I gave little packets I picked up at the checkout counter at World Market with Lego Santa Claus figures to my work teammates. I forgot to keep one for myself, alas, so I had to wait for that dachshund.
Just to be That Guy: “Sears” is a brand name. 