>>28633471.5 models came out like a machine-gun bullet spread against the wall, but nearly all of them were garbage and most of them were made purely for clout, not because the model designer had thought they made something worth using. Oftentimes you would see models being re-released with different names just so they could get the upvotes/whatever currency the platform they chose uses for training.
SDXL has had a more focused approach, on mostly one good model and people making derivatives/LORAs off that. Not to say that clout-chasers have completely stopped but there's a lower concentration of them than there were for SD1.5. Or maybe the clout-chasers are just making LORAs now, which in my opinion isn't as bad as model spammers as even crummy LORAs can still have a good use.