Yeah! Remember back when everyone and their dog had a Geocities (or Angelfire) web page?The days of counters, animated "e-mail me" GIFs, "sign my guestbook," "member of the X webring," and space backgrounds.
To be fair, there were all those flashing "congratulations, you're the 1 millionth visitor" ads back then.I'd have to agree with you. My high school years of '05-'09 were probably the best years of web design, although stuff began to falter around 2008. It's not that the pages were that notable or aesthetically appealing, it's that they were non-intrusive and you could focus on the intended subject matter without being sold free iPhones or fake insurance or being asked to donate to some gay-ass blogging site.