Sounds like a 'chicken/egg' question regarding the death. Did the industry do something to kill pinball (P2K, killing off WMS production, no innovation) or did something culturally kill the industry.

I think it is clear that consumers had moved on to new things by the mid-90s. P2K was a 'Hail-Mary' to attempt to cauterize the bleeding.

Even with the current Renaissance it is clear that most average consumers do not have a taste for pinball. This is why the "Fremont Street Arcade" cannot keep pins in their arcade even though that operator tried hard to do it. Eventually he realized his visitors would rather use a candy crane.

At the GameWorks near me I just sit and drink a beer and the kids run by the four pins and swipe their cards and keep running. It's remarkable if they plunge even one ball. The start buttons just blink... I can sit there and drink beers and play free pinball all day. Eventually I'm worried they will remove the pins to make a better return on that expensive retail floorspace.

The coin-pusher deducts more credits off their game card than the pinball machine does. Sadly, that demonstrates where pinball sits.

I do not predict it to get any worse though; it should sustain as a thriving boutique industry.