I think the reason people are worrying about the kids is that's how most of us started. I started collecting in middle school and the beginning of high school, and I was really into it during that time when I was trying cards like crazy with my friends and buying cheap packs from the corner drugstore. Kids didn't care about bent corners then. Then the prices of cards started exploding, and it was the Rookie card boom. I only had one card ever that I put into a top loader at that time, which was a real luxury then. It was a 84 Donruss Mattingly which was the crown of my collection. I didn't pull it from a pack, but actually saved up my allowance and got it from a card shop. I'm thinking I spent ~$40 on it, but my memory is pretty foggy on this. I had it graded last year and it came back a PSA 7, probably not worth the plastic around it, but still with a lot of sentimental value.
So even now when I got back into the hobby in my 30s like a lot of others, I had this memory of collecting as a kid to drive me. I think many others have had similar experiences. Their concern is that sure, I got back into this hobby in my 30s, but that's because I always had a latent interest in cards that I developed when I was a kid. However, I think it's simply a different time now, and we can't compare how things were when we grew up to how kids are now. People will get into collecting at different points of their lives now than how it happened in the past. There's always an inherent interest in many of us to collect (or hoard for others). The long history of cards and the story behind them will always drive people to be interested in them and eventually collect them.
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