Where have all the lighting and rendering gurus gone?

I haven’t been on this site for a couple of years…sorry but life has just gotten in the way.
Did I just show up during a lull in activity from the old hands? The reason why I’m asking is because I’m seeing a lot questions going either unanswered or answered in a very round about fashion when they can be answered via basic, built in functionality of Blender.
Please don’t be offended…I’m just wondering what’s going on here.