>Now it's all buried in bot-ran blogs all copying from each other.
You need to use a lot of +"query" -"query" modifiers to find the buried stuff.
>Or is it that people no longer make cool websites?
Depends on what you consider cool. I find that more interesting sites are usually spread by word of mouth. Here's a couple link directories to check out:
https://peelopaalu.neocities.org/
https://kaisernet.org/links.htm
https://sundee.neocities.org/links/
Some alternate search engines that mainly cover buried sites:
https://wiby.me/
https://search.marginalia.nu/
>The web just isn't as fun these days.
I think it's more the general mood of the users that's the problem. There are fun sites out there, but demoralized and/or nasty users diminish the overall mood.