One of the things rap music lost when it stopped sampling (as a general rule) were these really weird/interesting sounds from jazz records
Obviously you still get weird stuff but i guess it must be generally more templatized cos its all done on Logic or whatever
Much less effort is put into sound design now. I think because the gear was so limited back in the day, and the competitive nature of the scene, everyone was exploring the fuck out of every last parameter, trying to outdo each other. Producers now seem a lot more comfortable to rest on their laurels because one, it's more about the overall sonics of the tracks and how they hit you rather than the individual elements, and two, once they find a workable niche, they stick with it.
It is weird though because now the software can do almost anything you want and yet it's a relatively tame time for sound design. Brostep was kind of far out at first but that got codified pretty quick.
That whole limitations being a friend of creativity thing innit