This discussion is focusing on how the YHA should be a bit more like the old days, yet everyone will get there via satnav and smartphone mapping and Viewranger! All togged up in Goretex, with Vibram soled boots, lightweight rucksacks and a Garmin watch counting the steps. Then into the shower where you get dry with a microfibre towel, put on a nice fleece jacket and sit snuggled under the free duvet. Then you use the wifi to download the next days route and send texts and email to friends telling them that the YHA isn't like the old days and needs to be more like 1973! You can't pick and choose your progress.
Life, and the YHA moves on. If you want 1950s levels of service and comfort then you are 6 decades too late. Personally I really enjoy the changes to YHA, I think they are much more pleasant places to be, more lively and with no flippin block jobs to do. Why on earth would anyone bemoan the fact that you paid a tenner, then had to smile at a stranger while doing the sweeping up and pretending to enjoy the communal nature of the shared toil? No, I will rather pay £12 and let someone else do the tidying up thanks.
The availability of en-suite family rooms was a bloody God-send when the kids were younger, the little camping pods are even better. If this is the future of YHA, then I will just let my membership roll on and on. Excellent stuff.