Would be great if we could get some actual screenshots of the boards rather than speculating. That's why I'm curious to see if 1985 is the same as 2023. Without data we're just guessing.
I am an electrical engineer that designs a lot of audio stuff including guitar pedals. Today manufacturers certainly would go digital for chorus/flanger/delays unless the appeal of analog BBDs is directly what they are going for.
Digital has one advantage: your one PCB design can become many different pedals. Just change the design of the case, maybe leave the RAM IC out in effects that don't need a lot of memory, put different code on it and congrats: 90% of your product range are the same PCB and the same parts which is nuch more economical than doing a new design for every product.
Exception: Fuzz, distortion, overdrive and everything where you rely on complex characteristics of affordable analog parts.
It is not speculation at all, schematics for many many effects are available online. Manufacturers also freely admit to their pedals being clones of famous pedals. There is even a whole genre of pedals known as Klones because they are clones of a Klon. Have a look on Andertons YouTube and you will see them blindfold testing all the Klones, the Tubescreamer clones, the RAT clones etc. If you watch Josh Scott of JHS pedals he talks through how much they are 'exact same circuit' all of the time. Josh himself became famous due to a mod he made to the Bluesbreaker. Not as famous perhaps as Analogmans King of Tone (with a three year waiting list), which is a modification of a....Bluesbreaker. All the schematics are online. By the way you can buy dozens of King of Tone clones too, like the King of Blues, for 1/10th price.
When reviewing pedals it is common to say 'this is a modified x', or an 'x and y in the same box'
It is not even a secret that the analogue pedal market is selling the same pedals that were invented in the 60s-80's with minor tweaks for component availability. But of course they are, because what do most people want to sound like, of course it is their guitar hero from the 60s to 80s!!! I have a fuzz face for Hendrix, a big muff for Gilmour, and a Tubescreamer for SRV. All available today in exactly the schematic of the original, from multiple makers.
Guess I'll spend the next few days figuring out the diff.
My point is, you've provided just opinion. If you could have told me a thing or two about the actual circuits I might think you know what you're talking about. But rather than helping, you're just filling space with words in an attempt to sound knowledgeable.
Just search for "overdrive pedal" on Sweetwater and you'll see a lot of pedals that have been around for decades. Read up on the newer ones and you'll see they generally just add novelty options and variations to classic designs. You can easily find comparisons of schematics by googling, though it's not as simple as "Tubescreamer 85 vs Tuberscreamer 2023" because of various small evolutions and models. Try "tubescreamer circuit comparison" to get a good start.
Delays are another story, search Sweetwater and you'll see it's dominated by digital options that bundle things modulation, stereo effects, and loopers. You won't see the same analog options as the 80's, or many analog options at all comparatively.
A lot of the analog options are still around because bucket brigade devices are still manufactured. So you can get a Boss CH-1, a Memory Man, or something like that, new from the manufacturer.
