Agreed. There is an obvious downside to how cheap it is nowadays to "publish" something, whether on social media, in a blog or in something resembling a book,

Agreed. There is an obvious downside to how cheap it is nowadays to "publish" something, whether on social media, in a blog or in something resembling a book, we are now surrounded by low-quality content and it can be hard to tell the good from the bad. Another benefit of books and magazines is that you have an instant idea of how relevant the information is, "Electronics Weekly 1970", possibly not the latest best advice on using microcontrollers!