So it sounds like you think that there will be 2 distinct factions for the future. One that continues with the same old, same old; and a second more boutique, small volume, new genetics, custom breeders. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I think that's gonna be the case, sadly. Here on THCfarmer we have some excellent new genes available that folks should be excited about, but no, they sell poorly because they aren't a Kush or a
Chemdog hybrid.
I'll give you a great example, and I'm not doing this to boost sales of this product or to hurt anyone else's, just using it as an example to support an argument. Chiskei by Tropical Seeds, it's an 8 week pure sativa from South Africa, and believe me, the words 'pure sativa' and '8 weeks' don't often combine! Also, it's a stable IBL, great breeding stock, what more do you want? I know, let's rename it 'Super Kushdawg Haze' and I bet it will sell better.
I don't even look at any of the threads about Kush anymore, don't get me wrong, I like a nice kushy smoke, the soft kush taste appeals to me, but no matter how much I liked Kush I wouldn't want to grow an elite Kush cut or a feminised seedline made from one. I would go find my own excellent female from the same source that all these damn Kushes came from in the first place - indica cultivars from the northern portion of the Indian subcontinent! They are appearing now hybrids of some such cultivars from a number of sellers - e.g. Deep Chunk, X18, Mazar-i-Sharif, etc.
Let me use Bubba Kush as an example, all Bubba happens to be is an exceptional pheno of an old indica IBL, probably a worked descendant of one of the original indica seed imports to the US of the 1970s, Dabney Blue and Indiana Bubblegum are also examples of select phenos from those old indica imports. Folks see Bubba pics online, hear great reviews and they become fixated on getting hold of that particular cut, well I say that is a bad thing, instead, why not search out good indica IBLs and look for phenos that are as good as Bubba, trust me, they can be found, they may suit your personal tastes better than Bubba would.
I've posted these pics before, but I think they happen to provide a great example of what I'm talking about. This is a bud from a plant that is called Kentish Creme, I was there when it was named, as was the guy who found it from seed and the guy who identified it as a keeper and preserved it as a cut and passed it around, so I know the provenance 100%. The guy who found it is married to a Jamaican lady and while visiting family in Jamaica he met an auntie who grew amazing cannabis in her little garden in the Kentish area of rural Jamaica. He brought home a small number of seeds his auntie gave him and grew one in his back garden, it turned out to be amazing and it was cloned and became Kentish Creme. I was gifted the remaining 3 seeds and tried germing them, I got one to germ and it was a female, identical in every way to KC and I couldn't tell them apart, which indicates a stable IBL. What is it? I think it's an indica that has become acclimated to Jamaica, probably over 3 decades or more, it probably originally came from the Hindu Kush region. If I were to make seeds with this female with the intention of selling them, I'm sure calling it Kentish Creme would not sell as many seeds as if I called it Jamaican Kush or Chocolate Kush (it tastes like chocolate) cos of the current fixation with the word Kush.