The 2000s was an exciting time for games and consoles (& technology in general), wi-fi, motion control, HD, console OS', PCs going from MBs to GB of ram, touch screens, Online gaming, Otaku culture, midnight launches, birth of AAA & indie games, graphics starting to look pretty for the first time, in-game physics & open worlds wowed us for the first time (because open worlds had an actual point), etc, etc, etc. A new revolutionary hardware invention would happen almost every year (sometimes multiple within the same year).

All this progression became stagnant in the 8th gen with the exception of Loot boxes, empty open worlds, adding weapon upgrades to flesh out a game, minimal game design, pay to win, overuse of bloom (usually purple nowadays) online battle royals designed to be that one game people will only play, start of M$'s downfall, Satoru Iwata's death, E3 getting worse, etc, etc, etc.

But at least the 2010s gave us VR (I know VR isn't doing the best right now but I personally really like VR so I'm going to count it as a positive despite not many AAA games being released for VR to justify it's price/dedication).

In the early-mid 2000s, the term 'AAA' didn't exist. Gamers all had a dream that there will be a time when games look better than real life, where every blade of grass was different. Weather in games will have sophisticated mechanics like puddles and water steam/lakes rising in rain & freezing over in the cold. Everything would be interactable & destructible. Players dreamt of shooting holes through walls to look through to check for enemies in the next room. Gamers were so excited for the future.
Then in the mid-late 2000s gamers would get super hyped on what consoles would be like in the future. Will there be holographic game controller? Will games be stored on glowing blue cubes that float & slowly rotate above the console's light beam? What about connecting human consciousness to a game world?
The 2000s was a perfect time to be a teenager, growing alongside the developing games industry (& technology industry in general). Those were exciting & progressive times. I cannot trade that experience for anything.

6th + early 7th gen..yea 100% 2000s and its not even close.