who is into "later" cars

It was a time that bean counters, government and insurance companies got involved and production costs had to be slashed to stay in business. Hence everything became 'cheap'.
I have a hard time seeing 'plastic' parts or the knee-jerk removal of engine performance to meet emission demands as innovative or a 'good' thing. They had no choice and did everything they could to meet the new rules.

It wasn't until more modern cars with fine tuned port injection that engine performance came back while still being able to meet demands.

Although, yes the electronic leanburn system, with it's ECU mounted to a vibrating aircleaner unit on a extra emission hot engine, was a nice feat to be able to keep that ECU alive over the years.