GoPro is a third party solution that costs money (a lot). What makes it different from before?
Editing software were expensive Sony setups ($5K), plugins for Adobe AE or very feature-poor setups such as from Magix (around $200). Editing was very tricky, since there were few standards here, just many custom ways to do it. This is a somewhat difference, since it can be assumed that the path from capture to quickly experienced content may be very short and allow for a camera to youtube experience.
Creation devices were custom 3D rigs as expensive as the GoPro setup or consumer cameras like the Fuji W3 camera series. In this space, you are right, there is not so much difference there.