I'm consistently impressed by how much these Gen-Z "vaporwave" enthusiasts capture the anesthetics of the 80s/90s better than anyone that actually lived through them.
I've been wondering the same thing. My wife has been watching it for work reasons, (producer requesting "more stuff like stranger things") and it is really intolerable. I kinda think it's the same thing as 'ready player one' - substituting references to stuff that is supposed to induce nostalgia for style, characters, and pretty much everything I guess.
There is this creepypasta phenomenon about a place called the Backrooms. It's essentially every dead mall that you went to in the early/mid 90s, but completely empty. Some 18 year old kid made a game that costs $9 on steam, and it nails this feeling. That Feeling.