For one, the 10 series was generally built rock solid, and the architecture has been proven to be more durable under sustained stress; the 20 series had a problem with burnouts, and its flagship was only a smidge better than the old flagship. Nvidia just didn't put out a product worthy of a new generation with the RTX, gave them much higher MSRPs, and the generation was mostly a half-measure gimmick like you said. The 30 series is the true successor. They're solid and have great MSRPs, but we can't even get them so the point is moot.