Austin resident since 1967 here.
Austin has always been about finding those hidden gems that are unique to this city., but the same could be said of any city.
In old Austin, they were not that hard to find and despite their popularity, we're not that well attended. In true Austin form, by the time something got popular, the trend setters had already moved on, leaving the rest of to enjoy there work before business failure or what we would have considered overpopulation and saturation.
These types of places and events began to drastically drop off 2 or three years before the pandemic, which is when I would consider the time old Austin died.
Not coincidentally, that is when Austin real estate started to become truly unaffordable.
All the signs were there even in the early 90's when I noticed that the core of the city no longer catered to the student and governmental emoyee populations from a leisure standpoint, as prices had become more in line with Houston or Dallas.
These days, if you want and old Austin feel, I would recommend San Antonio, but their time is limited as well.
Austin still has pockets and activities with that old Austin feel, but they are soon discovered and turned into phantasmagoric events soon ruined by lack of intimacy and bad parking options. It's almost not even worth looking anymore.