I agree but the thing is, those companies have been putting out top notch stuff for decades are some of them are the best of the best. Compare any Atlantis to most Life Fitness pieces for example. They shit all over them. Most Life Fitness, Matrix, and even Technogym suck balls. Prime (formerly Strive), Atlantis, and Arsenal (Tom Eilerman who used to do all of Nebula's designs) have been in the game for a while now. A lot of Prime's pieces are just updates of the old Strive pieces, which by most people's accounts would be considered "old" at this point. I also agree that the majority of Hammer's pieces are simply "ok" but nothing special at all.
To OP's point, I think the golden age of equipment was in the 80's and 90's. You had real designers who themselves were bodybuilders making equipment but Flex got hit with a lawsuit (which hurt them irreparably) and Icarian went under. Some of Flex's designs can still be seen on some Startrac pieces.
Most average gym goers aren't even aware of why one Row machine might better than the other or have a better angle for the pull or a better force curve. Most simply see shiny and new and think it automatically equates to better. For me, I miss the shit out of Flex and old Nautilus chain drive stuff and the Hammer H Squat. Never got a chance to use that but it looked like a massive lawsuit waiting to happen.