People's interests almost never stay the same. Some times it's a matter of 'out growing' a particular mode, it just doesn't do all that you want it to be able to do. Or it gets a bit complicated unless you're really dedicated to it. Or, you just get bored with it for whatever reason. So, you try something else. Very common.
Sometimes you find that you like a more personal interaction than some of the digital modes provide, it may just be talking to someone satisfies that urge. I've found that things like amtor/pactor/etc are more of a machine talking to another machine kind of thing that while certainly useful, just doesn't hold my interest. I'm not really needed for it to work, so why hang around and listen to those machines 'talk'? If I needed to pass traffic or data of some type, sure, much more reliable/accurate than doing so by voice. I'm not involved with that anymore so I don't 'do' those modes. But I can if I need/want to! With a reliable (sort of) connection between computer and radio I don't need a TNC (or need to learn that 'language' again!). Most of the required 'gadgets' are built into the newer radios anyway, right? Sort of? Well, kind of anyway.
The 'other side' of that coin is that there are a lot of instances where a TNC and digital modes would come in very handy! The local EOC participated in a recent emergency communications (SIT) test. Most information was passed by voice. Oh man, wasn't that FUN? I think they've sort of decided that a standardized format would be nice, and being able to do all this @#$% with a digital mode would be even nicer. Not quite as many, "Wait a minute, was that____ or ____ you meant?", sort of thingy. Don't misunderstand, they did well, made a terrific 'score'. But there's gotta be an easier way, ain't there? Nothing new, just gotta find out how 'they' used to do this stuff, kind'a deal.
Enough of the 'war' stories...
- 'Doc