This issue reminds me of modern film where special effects become the entire reason for making a movie, and the producers forget the characters and plot.
That seems like progress to me; watching old movies has convinced me that they are seldom the iconic masterpieces they are supposed to be. Speech often gives way to mannerism, and slowness of expression isn't the same thing as the silence between notes in a blues, regardless of what Wayne might have suggested or believed.
La Dolce Vita is probably one of the only old(ish) movies I've watched a few times and enjoyed each time; that's possibly because I know some of the locations to a vague extent; Blow Up was okay for two viewings or so and then it crawled away into deep sleep. I enjoy a bit of action movie, dislike horror intensely; I suppose I might enjoy seeing some Bardots again, but that's because I've snapped her and that makes it personal, and she was my last movie love ever, replacing Ava in the batting of a Parisienne's eye.
What other contemporarily valid reason can there be for movies? Every story has already been told; audiences are far more sophisticated and blasé about stuff and droning actors/
actresses (notice how females want to be males in that business?) contribute very little anymore. I don't think it's as simple as philistinism, I think that people live in a world that's simply too quick for the old-style movies - tv series are about as slow or wordy as people will bear.
I used to enjoy Formula 1 until it turned into a religious procession; GT racing isn't any better and maybe saloon car championships offer the myth of a relationship betweem track and road vehicles. It's all too slow and uneventful; ordinary life offers more for many people so why settle down with the cocoa and a blanket over the knees?
Drawback? Yes; once you go the way of effects you have to get better and better at it; we've all seen a bullet drift slowly through the air, Kung Fu flew too often and now that's corn.
Character and plot don't do it anymore; they take time nobody has and, ultimately, disappoint because plot only works because the writer says it does, regardless of what your own intelligence might suggest...
If you want non-effects entertainment, read a book. Even a photography one. In a book you use the words and create your own characters as you go along, far more convincingly than in any film. Try
'Mockingbird (as in To Kill) if you don't believe me.
Rob C