I personally got wrapped up in vintage about 10 years ago. I was and only picked up modern stuff at the time once in awhile glancing at "old stuff" at shows but nothing more.
For some reason or another, I got started on the '55 Topps set as someone on the ebay boards at the time was working on a '55 PSA 8 set and he had a bunch of mid grade stuff he wanted to get rid of. I looked into it and thought the set just looked great and was affordable to put together for me at the time as I was at the end of college. THEN, some seller on ebay accidentally shipped an order to me meant for someone else that had a '41 Play Ball in it and I fell in love with that set. (Yes, I found out who it belonged to and shipped it to them ASAP.)
As time went on and modern stuff got more and more ridiculous, I was looking at post war vintage a lot more, mostly 50s and 60s. THEN, at a time I don't remember, I stumbled upon this site. Just looking at all of the cards and learning a boat load from you guys, I fell in love with pre-war. I've always had a great passion for the old timers. The players, not you guys!
Anyway, I was still buying modern up until about a few months ago mixed in with the vintage I was after and finally said to heck with it. I bagged the modern stuff and am strictly vintage. Well, 99%. There will still be some modern I'll want every now and then. I am on another board that is mostly modern and some guys do have an appreciation for the vintage but I think they like the "chase" a lot more in opening boxes/cases. The gamble is more fun for them rather than picking up a card here and there knowing what they are getting.
Enough of my rant. I really don't know what's hurting. From what I've seen on other boards, people really like the chase of a big "hit" in modern stuff. That and there really isn't that much exposure to pre-war unless you actually go looking for it or stumble upon it and have a sudden love for it.