I really agree on the creativity part. When I started playing everyone had their own repertoire of openers for every mod as well as pretty unique styles during a fight. Esports did already exist back then, but only for competitive games like counter-strike. If during that time, somebody played this silly ragdoll game try-hard competitively, they would've been absolute weirdos. This game was about finding your own fighting style and laughing at the silliness of the fights.
And again, I say it all went downhill with the rise of ABD.