Are you arguing that the Eternal September effect doesn't exist? Because having been seen the effect first hand in no less than a dozen different online communities over the years, I can confidently say that it very much does exist.
But this is in regards to specific sites and communities; "The Net" has long since become too large to be considered a single community.
To a certain degree every generation thinks the Net it grew up with is the Real Net, and the Net that came afterwards is a wasteland.