Exactly! When I think of softcore, it really is a shame softcore series and movies really fizzled out all together years ago. I think it's because nobody wanted to market them or produce them anymore or that places who once hosted them moved on? even before covid was here softcore seemed to stop. I miss the hot softcore series like Zane’s Sex Chronicles, 7 Lives Xposed, Love On Top, Lingerie, etc and the many softcore movies that were produced. It still now though is very fun to look back on those scenes and those days.
Softcore existed primarily because it filled a niche in media. It was more explicit than mainstream (many mainstream actresses wouldn't show breasts, and men wouldn't show anything below the waist.), and it was more accessible than porn which was difficult to find sometimes (especially for niche material) and could be expensive. For example, you might have to pay for DVDs or Payperview material because the internet was simply not as good and downloading movies took forever.
Nowadays, you can easily find mainstream series on HBO and Netflix that have sex scenes every bit as explicit as softcore was 20-30 years ago. And now that finding free porn is as easy as a google search, softcore porn's niche is getting smaller and smaller every year.
And it makes sense. Why would I pay 20 bucks to see a low budget recording of a hot guy pretend to have sex when I can see a version of the same thing with a lot better production and story or I can see a hot guy actually having sex with erection and penetration for free.
The only places that softcore is thriving are places where hardcore porn is banned. (Like South Korea)