I mean, you read that some 4-letter word registered in 1988 sold for $2,000,000, what do you think? Probably "Great, now I just need to finish that time machine...". It's like reading about how some guy invested in Apple stock in the late-70's. Cool story bro, but exactly how does it help me invest in stocks today?.
Of course, if you are expecting to make a fortune on handregs it is too late for the most part. That's why domainers who are hoping for the second coming of dotcom and invest heavily in new extensions always lose money.
Just because you can't repeat the same play doesn't mean that the advice of old school domainers is irrelevant.
Quality is still relevant,
discernment is still relevant. Good domains remain good domains, whereas bad domains don't become good domains just because they are aged.
There are just too many know-it-all domainers who refuse to learn the lessons from History. This is where the experience of old-timers should come in handy. You can take a donkey to a fountain but you can't force him to drink
You brought up the stocks analogy. Domaining is very similar in many aspects. The key is to identify domain names that are
undervalued and that could be resold for a healthy profit.
Money can be made on handregs but this is difficult. For the vast majority of domainers, the Handreg Route is a boulevard of shattered dreams. I think it is a waste of time and money in general. Domainers always say they handreg domains because they can't afford to buy great names on the aftermarket. But when you've bought hundreds or thousands of domains, and been paying for renewals you have effectively spent (or wasted) thousands of dollars already. If you do the math you can figure it out for yourself.
Instead, you could have bought just a few nice domains. You flip them for a healthy profit, and reinvest.
Lather rinse repeat.
In short, yes old-school domainers are still relevant. Because domaining hasn't changed that much really. .com is still the most sought-after extension.
I would listen to the old-timers, and look not just at what they are doing, but - even more importantly - what they are
not doing.