I don't think it's about drugs, it could be video games, but when you overload your brain enough, you may experience a kind of color washout of the experiences that don't overload your brain.
The point I’m making is you can’t take a quote from Amy Winehouse about how boring life is without drugs and apply it to people who have just experienced anything intense.
Amy Winehouse was likely in PAWS with severely altered brain chemistry. It’s not just that other experiences were pale in comparison to what she’d been doing, it’s likely she was chemically incapable of feeling very much positive and responding normally.
But MDMA is seritogenic, not dopaminergic, and bad serotonin hygene is predominantly a too-little problem and not a too-much problem (unless you're using drugs, then you've got to regulate both ways).
Nobody's complaining, so far as I know, that having too many socal connections is degrading their capacity to enjoy a cup of tea in solitude.
I think this is the challenge of responsible drug use. Hedonic exhaustion might be actually zero or negative (making the rest of life better), depending on the person and use.
I think it has a lot to do with intent and moderation.
I don’t believe it applies in the same way to substances people use infrequently.
I reached heights of experience untold with MDMA on dance floors when I was younger. In my 40s I still get a kick out going to the zoo though, a walk in the countryside, solving a puzzle, or a visit to the pub with my mates.