Ye's vocal performance on Vultures sounds like he's having fun again after the anemic three-peat of ye, KSG, & JIK. His rapping vocals were coming out of their coma on DONDA but it fit the mood and his singing was on point

But to answer OP, it's okay to give legends a pass for not making masterpieces every single time. Ye's run was unprecedented for 21st century standards and we should be thankful he's got a few great tracjs in him here and there. No legendary musical act has made 12 straight masterpieces and the ones on that pace usually stop making music after a handful of records! Imo, to keep yourself from being disappointed from these drop offs is to not expect it in the first place, and try to listen to other artists or seek new genres so you'll be happy listening to great music all the time!

But to answer your question OP:

Its because of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction

Nooo the mumbling and untouched sample are a stylistic choice nooo you don't understand it's a classic

"I would expect them to grow as an artist"

Art is not as linear as you make it seem. As time changes the taste of the consumer changes. Just because you liked an Usher album doesn't mean you're going to like an Usher album 20 years later. His experiences and his own personal change will grow, sure, but maybe in a different direction from your own experiences and personal taste

You act as if art is either good or bad, but art is art. There is no objective scale for it

An artist has two options. Make the same sound, which WILL get old after a certain amount of time, or experiment and change their sound, which eventually will not line up with your personal taste

Because zoomer hip hop fans aren't listening to the music actively, they're just looking for background music while they lay on the floor twitching and frothing at the mouth from laced pills

This

yall gave FAT D a pass i ain’t forget

while music is not some sort of competition peoples sense of inspiration, obsession, investment with pushing their music to the creative limit absolutely can/does dwindle as they grow as their life changes, they maybe pay less attention to newer music/sounds, also if you’re in that stage of your career no one’s gonna care enough really about the music to pressure you to make something better

You mean DrakeToThe?

I promise you, there will never be another rapper/ hip hop artist doing what Ye is doing right now at his age even with diminished tools he’s able to put out interesting (relatively risky) music that connects across like 3-4 generations lmao

"diminished tools" bro he's rich as f*** what do you mean. He has access to more tools than 99.9999999% of artists

is this a joke response, I’m referring to him being way out of his prime as a rapper on technical level lmao

I guess i agree then but i personally dont think its significant

Y’all gonna learn to appreciate Donda