In a way they were right. Movie and music have better definition, games better graphics but on a functional level everything we do today (web browsing, text messaging, video call, email, online shopping) already existed 15 years ago. There is more bloat (JS and Electron), more confusing UI design, more privacy invasive software now and but for the end user nothing really changed.

Not true, now you can also do those same things on a cell phone! Seriously though, some things are new but disappointingly few. Voice recognition and machine translation actually work now. VR has gotten pretty good but not many use it. Virtualization has improved a lot. More-or-less functional cryptocurrencies exist. Things like lane keeping and adaptive cruise control are almost standard on new cars. What else am I missing?

I agree that for a tech-savvy consumer end-user, not that much has changed. But endless porting and migrations aside, there are still plenty of businesses and industries that need new software for new ideas. For example most every new concept in medicine or finance needs software.