Indeed the market has changed a lot. An important factor is that the
LTOI releases had the unfortunate side effect of devaluing IF games
greatly. "If I can buy real Infocom games for a couple of dollars
each, why should I pay $20 for a (supposedly inferior) shareware
product?".
Also it should be noted that (at least according to my sources :-))
Graham Cluley's games are crippleware. Some puzzles are impossible to
solve without he hints, which you can only getby registering. Today,
such a scheme would be far less effective, since pople would just ask
for hints on rec.games.int-fiction.
Magnus