I can personally validate your excellent observations. Two occasions come to mind. Last year I visited Split, Croatia. While waiting for my sister outside our hotel I saw waves of tourists being led through the plaza by tour guides. They were just passing through some of the most beautiful architecture I’ve ever seen.
Then there’s my experience on a pilgrimage to Israel. For safety reasons we decided to go with a group as opposed to on our own. There were 4 busloads of us. I found it very disconcerting that no matter where we stopped, no matter how holy the place was, there was always someone from our group pushing me out of the way to take a picture. I was sitting down and I actually had someone ask me to move my feet so she could take a picture of the floor!
It seems a shame that people are spending all this money for what are probably once in a lifetime experiences and then separating themselves from the actual experience with a phone camera. As you so rightly point out there are millions of pictures of pretty much everywhere a tourist would go. When are we going to learn to just relax and soak it in?
Finally, as a resident of the New York metro area I can empathize with the local residents of these tourist locations who are feeling pushed out. Manhattan is no longer affordable to live in due to air b&b. I used to make an annual trip to the Metropolitan Museum but now the lines are so long you spend half your time waiting to get in. Forget Times Square. It’s so inundated with super heroes and muppets charging for a selfie with you, one can barely pass on the sidewalk. With ever growing population and mobility I don’t think it will get better any time soon. Perhaps we need to reconsider monetizing every pleasant spot on Earth…