Yes, every time I hear about a new class of whatever, with surprising properties, I check to see if they're talking about quasiparticles. And they're almost always talking about quasiparticles.

Now, there's nothing wrong with exploring those ideas and they might eventually be fruitful, but in terms of looking "further down" (which is typically the lure of the excitement), quasiparticles are only looking back up. I am of the mind that you could make assemblages of particles -- that is to say, quasiparticles -- do all kinds of oddball things that their constituents cannot. That is fine and often useful, but it isn't the further down we were interested in.