I can't tell if you are being sarcastic, but because the format and transport were fixed, it enabled the creation of many clients, some of which had some incredible useful innovations.

Today this innovation has moved to the myriad of proprietary alternatives (like Slack or our very own HN) but they are closed worlds so not only can nobody create a new client, we also loose all the contents if the company dies (which isn't rare).

--grumpy greybeard

it's not lost - it's just not in the spotlight due to these young person's webs.. facebook, twatter or whatever .)

there is plenty of active usenet groups, comp.arch being one of the best places where the greybeards meet.