There are still WhatsApps, quietly building a huge customer base with nobody paying attention except the actual users. A bunch of interesting semiconductor work going on (various "AI" chips, too many to succeed; SiFive grinding away slowly but surely, invisible to all but us nerds, etc); I think what my company is working on (barely an SV company with only two in northern CA) could change the global economy, yet we barely had time to put up a static website.
But since "tech" has replaced car magazines, computer magazines, and some sports writing, people show up to write about whatever looks interesting, and what looks interesting is 1> understandable to someone not steeped in it (TBF that's true of the readers as well) and 2> has people who will seek you out to tell you how amazing they are. I'm fascinated that that article mentioned more than once that their B round was a steep percentage! Oh, it didn't; it only quoted some large-sounding numbers and let the reader do the math themselves. Probably the reporter has no idea how it works either.
Most of the action is in the Valley, where there are fewer deals, though more money being spent. There's much more deal flow in SF, typically for plans like this one that need less capital in the earlier stages -- giving more to write about in a nicer place to be walking around than down here in SV.
So don't worry, big things are happening, but the revolutions always start out under ground.