It's been years since I've actually watched anything on TV because I felt like it. If someone else is watching something I'm interested in, screw it, I'll sit down and watch. But I've gotten so used to the convenience of wanting to watch a show immediately and without ad breaks by streaming that like.. going back to TV is basically a major downgrade now. So in that sense, yeah, TV's far from a golden age to me, it's basically got one foot in the grave by sticking around despite the fact that streaming's taking over. That's not the argument you're talking about though lol
In terms of TV shows quality-wise, I'd say it's.. not really in a golden age either? I thought about saying it's the same as it always was. You got your modern classics, your cult masterpieces, the average shows that are just okay enough to not feel like you wasted your time, the average ones you skip over because they're simply not for you, the guilty pleasures, and the garbage you refuse to look at. Everything's really saturated now and the numbers vary for each of these increasingly subjective categories though.
There's that issue of having too much to watch that you end up not watching anything at all, so you only watch the stuff you know will be good. Because with all those shows you don't hear too much about, that's an investment you gotta make. An investment of time, something we obviously don't get back. Like, this is an issue I'm too familiar with lol but yeah, I don't remember feeling this way back when I was watching TV.
I guess what changed is the way I (and other people) consume media, but that's a seperate topic, I think. In any case, it definitely affects how I'm viewing the big picture. This is all my opinion, of course, because no matter what I say or feel.. apparently, we already are in a golden age of TV.