I know exactly what you mean - when I said rich content though I was talking more about images, animations, video, games. In the early web over a 28.8k (or slower!) modem you'd have to make every non-text asset count and compress it (3-phase loading jpegs, anyone?), now you can put 10Mb of javascript executable in there and no one bats an eye.
I misread your comment, of course! Yes, pictures were a calculated luxury. If you asked me to click to download a picture and it wasn't worth the five minute wait, you went on a certain list.
