[varjag]

They used to send full fledged expeditions, with authors, science experts and world renowned photographers on board. To most extreme and dramatic places: deserts, jungle, active warzones, mountaintops, the Arctic and so on. Which produced really in-depth reports with great penmanship often accompanied by masterpieces of photography. And while the world is much better traveled now it's rarely done by well funded teams collected for the purpose.

[dylan604]

These other content producers are doing the same things with perhaps the exception of writers. Look at the expeditions BBC has done to have an excuse to use Attenborough. Netflix has a few series doing similar. These expeditions haven't gone away, just their presentation in this format has.