is painting the miniatures a new thing or bigger now?

Back in my day, when we played it, painting the Mechs was more of an optional thing. Nice, but not a big deal. Maybe that was just my group.

Here on reddit it seems to be big, people are doing great stuff and putting a lot of effort into it.

Is it a local and cultural thing?

is it a new thing (someone said the warhammer kids are now in battletech?)

is it an internet thing? (people can show and share here?)

just curious