I got back into gaming around 2007 and quickly felt 5e was too much players vs dm. Luckily for me George Rahm aka Red was also getting back into gaming. Red and I have always agreed that the DM as AD&D 2e described was wrong but the Referee as D&D 0e and EPT had described as right.
The game should never be players vs dm. The dm should never be god but just a referee. I have been lucky in finding others over the years who have agreed with this.
The Strength of the OSR is the ability to allways find something new but yet is old. I love seeing all the new games coming out using player facing. I have been playing Conrad's Fantasy since 1991 and it was my first experience at player facing combat.
So I agree with you that the OSR is always on life support. Yet somehow it keeps going on and new material keeps getting added.