When Minecraft came out, it was hard to understand, not that good looking and only really catered to nerd gamers. There was no recipe book, no cute animals, no lush caves to explore, just an unforgiving Day-Night cycle and few, very creepy caves.
But those days are behind us. Minecraft is now considered a kids game and someone who bought the game as a grown up when it still was a grown up game now face ridicule and are “second class gamers” in the eyes of the developers imo. Not to speak of bedrock edition (eww) with its microtransactions and dumbed down UIs.
I remember making a paypal account for the express purpose of buying it after reading about it in a tech magazine (on paper - can you believe it?).
What do you think are currently games that are not focused on children and have great potential?
I get Minecraft probably played a huge role in your life, and that would explain why you feel so disappointed with it. I don’t think it’s as bad as you described it, and I don’t think it’s leaning towards children more than before, but you’re talking from a place of nostalgia and I kinda understand that.
I don’t know how long you’ve been playing it but… maybe you’ve just… outgrown the game? Or got tired of it. You’re talking about when Minecraft came out… that was 13 years ago. It’s really hard to not lose interest in a game (any game, really) after so much time. Not to mention… you got older, too, and your tastes evolved.
I can’t really recommend you another game from your post (your question is way too broad, just play whatever, you don’t have to stick to one single game). But maybe you should consider that Minecraft is fine, that you spent maybe too much time with it, that it’s time to move on, and to be at peace with it.