Interesting comment about the focus on the "info".
I wonder if, in some subtle way, Wikipedia is somewhat responsible for the decline of these kinds of sites. If you want to quickly get some (probable) facts and information on a given topic, wikipedia is where you go.
The first time I found and read wikipedia was after discovering warhammer 40k. There was a single page with fluff about everything up to that point. It took me a few days to read through after school. The effort in that article could have made 10+ sites.
Contrasting today, it feels like everyone wants to look and feel that same.