It's funny the differences between country and evolution on the sport/activity.
Here in Portugal MTB rose to epidemic levels for the last 14 years or so. As soon as bikes started to be more forgiving and marathons emerge with the nicely "paved" trails without the edginess of some steep XC tracks (I'm not even considering DH of course), bike shops exploded, thule bike racks were all over the place, everyone bought the whole kit, they looked - oh my - so professional, well at least till they hit the trails course lol.
Another funny trend that came with the mob was the sudden urge to climb, and for hardtail fast bikes too! Instead of having fun and searching for singletracks or descents, enjoying what technology offered, like drop posts and lights fullsus bikes, nah, it was more like portraying cycling on MTB bikes...
I don't feel fear about the all the todays tech. Back in the 90s we could only dream to film our own POV movies, or having a button to drop our posts when needed. Actually apart from the confusing "this is the next big thing, forget last year review", I think in some way this made me enjoy MTB again (for the third time), after retrobiking brought me to ride again. We are in some way living the dream!
Now about the trails, as this is a small country there's little space to "explore". You adventure yourself and in no time you're trespassing. Most of the land is private, and, if you've seen Portugal from the sky, is packed with houses, walls, fences, its almost claustrophobic the human footprint.
I think we are still years behind of that view on MTB; private or dedicated trails, I'm not even sure If we will get to that, as you're only now experiencing some small levels of booby-trapped trails by some enraged hikers or land owners.
EDIT: something that scares me. E-bikes.
I kinda hate it - and I'm free to do it - cause it defeats the purpose of trying harder in cycling/MTB and sends a horrible message to those starting now, or just trying to improve.
For me, having fun in this sport implies combining physical, mental strength & skills. This is an hobby, if you take 5 more minutes to get to the top, just try harder or accept it, don't just throttle and overtake all the suckers who power themselves up the hill.