Collecting Videogames is more populair then ever why would it by dying anytime soon? I'd almost start calling it a hipster hobby, wherest 15-20 years ago it was just seen as a poor man's hobby.
I was being laughed at school sometimes because i was into older games, like why would you want that old junk can't you afford a ps2!!
GBA came out at the very same time as the ps2 and those where all 2D games. and since they where brand new games it's not a poor mans hobby in that case.
Pretty much every kid liked 2d games at the time as a result of the gba being really popular. Ds also didn't shy away from 2d games.
I'm talking retro stuff, what does the gba have to do with this it was new back then. If you were like 16 in 2002 all most school kids cared about was playing gta 3 and maybe (smoking cigs and drinking beer.)
If you were seen walking around with a handheld you would end up being laughed at for it being a kids console or in the worst case being bullied, well atleast it was like that to the school i went.
Since i was into master system and sega in general i was being laugh at for being too poor to buy the latest consoles, not that i really cared anyway, trading a pack of cigarettes or couple of beers for a ps1 rpg, well don't mind me if i do, yep i was still being called an idiot after the trade.
was pretty different for me at the time.
Everyone was playing pokemon or mario smash. GBA was just as new as the ps2. it wasn't retro ps2 was released in 2000 gba in 2001. ps2 is more retro than the gba. I still remember them late night gaming sessions with mario party it kept on going with the ds era.
Sure people had GTA aswell. but in my case at school everyone was talking about regi puzzles and such. You where the cool kid if you knew the secrets of such games. Fun times especially since I was one of the guru's at the time for this kind of stuff. pretty much everyone was busy with nintendo it seems.
Gamecube was the console for multiplayer ps2 and xbox where not really notable at the time in my region at least. and when people usually had those aside from GTA they only had shovelware.
I also remember that even at the time we would download snes roms or that people had a sega console from their parents that they would use. and gba emulation on pc was even a thing from the get go when the games where brand new in stores interesting times. 3ds era was when the party died except with friends.
Guess what's popular will vary per region. Always interesting to see what other people's experiences where at the time.