Well... maybe not sad, but definitely disappointed. I kinda grew up with dA as, like, the art platform for beginning artists to get seen and find each other. The recent deviations tab was my favorite thing about that place; I'd upload, then go browse and like other people's recent art for a while. It was just a nice thing. It was nice to see the art people were making in the moment, and it was nice to be supportive in some way.
I think the recent deviations tab is gone now... it's kinda there, but just as a little scroll that shows you like 6 deviations at a time now, and it stops at around 50 posts in. Unless I'm missing something.
If anything, I think dA is just betting all their money on AI art now. There's more tabs for AI than recent stuff, at least... I don't know. I just miss the old dA I guess.