And then Firefox changed its version numbering policy to “catch up”. I lost a shred of respect for them that day.

Except the railway boom isn’t still going… it unarguably, unambiguously did fizzle, just like the canal boom before it, and for exactly the same reason too: it was replaced by a superior technology. In the case of canals, that was railways. In the case of the railways, that was motorised road-going vehicles.