Hello Geoffrey,
I am very happy that you have decided to address this subject.
It is something I have been looking at and pondering very deeply. I said this to a few friends in Paris in June, that this metier is in a serious state of creative rut, as many of the companies with the resources and the historical know how, seem to have losing their way in hiring good talent. They are also failing to provide them with the resources and demanding that good work be done fitting the standard of the house.
Now there is war between "bloggers" and "journalists" started by journalist calling out bloggers while many of these Journalists make no real distinction between designers and DJ's / Copyists/ samplers parading around as designers.