Old documentation was based on the didactic principle of presenting the foundation before jumping into the specifics. Online documentation seems to forget that there's even such a thing as "foundational background".
Audiences in Europe were more likely to find it useful to be presented with the working theory first, and examples later, as a specialization of the theory.
American audiences tended to prefer working examples first, and then a generalization to form a theory.
In my opinion, the same is true of computing - as a mentor, especially when working with folks who don't come to programming from a "typical" background, there's a lot of basic context that has to be conveyed precisely because so much of our docs assume they can leave out all the stuff that "everybody knows".
Newbies are lucky in this way, that they don't have even a mistaken reason to skip reading the basics.
But if I don't already know exactly what I'm looking for, it's hard to use. It's really difficult to "learn about" how to open sockets if I can't remember sockaddr_t exact spelling or the right header to include.
tl;dr: it’s groff(1), not the -man and -mdoc formats, which is primitive (in this sense).
On the other hand in the last month I have seen 40 page datasheets from Phillips/NXP/Nexperia that contain highlevel description of what the thing is supposed to do, ridiculously detailed description of I2C and reference to some kind of SDK that you should use to actually interface with the thing…
Or people who avoid microwaves because of radiation poisoning.
Maybe there's like a compromise where every X number of years, a product will come with a hefty manual which doesn't assume knowledge and starts at the basics as a refresher of sorts.
Cell phones, microwaves, light bulbs, plastic containers.
Actually, what I want more than anything to ship with thick manuals is skincare products. I have these more high end skincare products that came as a set and, let's be honest it was likely a waste of money. But I got it for the "experience," y'know?
Anyway, none of the products tell me how to use them. They don't tell me what order to use them in. They don't tell me how often to use them.
These are all things that you know if you're a girl and you don't know if you're a guy because, like you said, there are years worth of manuals--I just skipped those "lectures."
It's not as common as other microwave myths but it's a thing.
Incidentally, there are types of metal dishes that can go into the microwave and yet most people today don’t know that, probably because nobody actually read the manuals, just the warning stickers.
I am by no means against understanding the theory behind what you are doing. My degree is in physics for a reason. But the “older is better” adage is tiring. I guarantee you that most people didn’t read the 200 page manual for their microwave oven and neither would most people today.