Actually, Joeybike's post make considerable sense. The reality is that bikes
have gotten absurdly expensive, fragile, and complicated, and times
have changed. When i was a kid in the late 60-early 70's, the basic bike from Sears or Western auto that nearly everyone rode, weighed about as much as a refrigerator, but they ran and ran and ran and ran, and became hand-me-downs. We didn't know anything about servicing hubs and headsets, replacing chains, etc. We built bigger and bigger ramps to jump, pounding the shinola out of those things, and I never saw a frame crack, and handlebar snap or a wheel shatter. Our bicycle multi-tool was called a Crescent wrench !
We pulled the tires off the rims with a big flat-head screwdriver, and patched the tubes ourselves.
Now, a new bike under $500 is right at the edge of being junk., you need multiple Allen wrenches and tiny screwdrivers to adjust anything, and God help you if you over-torque something a little !
His point about times changing was also valid (and I think, misunderstood). Kids these days want instant, painless, easy, gratification, and modern technology is giving it to them.
The same concerns the OP mentions the bike industry having, is also affecting the guitar makers. It takes patience and dedication to master a musical instrument, and kids these days have less and less of those qualities, especially when modern "music" can be created on a lap top.
Sure, you can find places where there are young people riding bikes around, but that's more the exception than the rule. I've noticed for years that neighborhoods that once would've been filled with kids on bikes, skateboards, tossing footballs, etc. are now virtually ghost towns, because the kids are inside in the air conditioning playing video games and stuffing their faces !!!!
