All of the factors you mentioned existed before Blockbuster went bankrupt. I found nearly half of the good movies I ever watched simply by looking at DVD cover

All of the factors you mentioned existed before Blockbuster went bankrupt. I found nearly half of the good movies I ever watched simply by looking at DVD covers of older titles there. Yes, it had lots of filler. Netflix has even more filler percentage-vise. The thing I disliked about Blockbuster was that renting new stuff there was a stressful experience where you felt ripped off at the end. It was too expensive and the time limits were way too short.