>Somehow all of our education and technology has resulted in everything being as basic and cheap as possible.

Yeah, because housing poor people is a greater priority nowdays, as opposed to builind palaces.

>Sometimes when I see pictures of old buildings I can't help but notice that it seems like everything used to be so much fancier than it is now.

Here's some houses in Poland 100 years ago. Looks fancy eh?

https://monovisions.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/vintage-d...