All of the above apply to me, but I would STILL collect comic books regularly if not for one thing:  DECOMPRESSION!  Whenever I look at a new comic these days, the thing going through my head is always, "Get on it with it all ready!"

Even though most of the stuff put out to day is not my taste, there are a few things that i find not bad and would surely collect monthly.  Except i don't pick it up because that damn issue is just too thin story wise.  It drives me bonkers!  I get multi-part stories.  I get issues ending on suspenseful cliffhangers.  But since at least the early 2000s, I always feel like each issue is way too quick a read and basically 4 to 6 issues of today's comic should be compressed into 1 or 2 and then I'd buy it.

And waiting for the TPB doesn't make it ok for me.  I don't buy the trade because even all together, the decompression makes the story too thin, makes it take longer than it should and totally drains the merit and enjoyment of the story.

There are lots of trends in comics that I don't like for the past couple of decades, but I'd still be collecting if it weren't for DECOMPRESSION!

Again, I'd hold a Byrne comic issue as to the model of how it should be done.  You can sit in your big comfy chair and read one issue, takes longer than 15 minutes, and there's just a satisfaction there that today's decompressed stuff totally kills.

Reading and collected is not necessarily to monthly titles. Sometimes, I'll buy stand alone hardcover / softcover titles; again, it depends on the creative team involved.

I didn't really buy anything for about five years there, but I would visit comics shops every so often just to see what was happening--and then Image Comics came!  A third universe/company was coming!  It was so exciting!  It revived my interest!  Now, I could probably drop them all in a fire (except for the first 20 issues of WILDCATS though--they were pretty good, and it took a long time for SAVAGE DRAGON to go off the rails) and not miss them.  But my interest was revived.

But not totally.  I would never again buy "everything" from any company.  Now, I had to "follow the talent"--Ed Brubaker on CAPTAIN AMERICA was a fantastic 7 or 8 years, some runs on DAREDEVIL or THE HULK were good, I tracked down the John Byrne stuff I missed.

I get your point about how COIE torpedoed TT and Losh.  But remember, to the public especially at that time, those characters didn't mean jack.  DC wanted to revitalize the bigs and have a more streamlined universe. (Which they succeeded at to varying degrees).

I myself do not like the multiverse or earth's concept.  Having an E2 Superman as a result of a 70s retcon always rubbed me the wrong way.  Its all so niche and fanboyism to me.

  I do like divergent timeliness off the main universe.  A difference with a distinction in my mind at least.

One More Day/Brand New Day started the ball rolling, and I quit a few years later.

I have picked up a few TPBs since, but not any actual issues. 

But I still read a lot of non-Big 2 comics that are more creator-driven and finite.