Too much magic?

   This is gonna sound a lot like an old man, telling the story of how he would walk 5 miles to school, in waist deep snow, uphill, both ways. I assure you. There is no jealousy of how easy it is for the younger generations involved. To the contrary, I lament their loss.
   Throughout Basic D&D, 1e AD&D, and I can only presume 2nd ed. (I didn't play that one) Magic items were a rare occurrence. If you found a +1 sword, you named that S.O.B. and held onto it until your character died. Maybe the dice gods would smile on you, and might end up with a +2 Frostbrand. Heaven forbid you ever got hold of +5 Holy Avenger. Your character finishes out the adventure, then runs away to hide and stroke "The Precious".
   I can't speak for anyone else, but most of the games I played in were low magic. We really didn't start getting any serious magic items until we were at least 6th level.
"and by gum, we were happy to have nothing"
ok, sorry about that...
   It was the elimination of Treasure Types. That's where they lost the feel of Old School gaming, for me at least. The random treasure generation tables were never your friend. When I used to play (a VERY long time ago it seems) the only actual "placed" treasure you would find was in commercial modules. Our group designed our own most of the time. It's a philosophy I still follow now. Design your own material.  We would place the monsters and let the dice gods decide what we found. That was where the excitement of the dungeon crawl was for me. That's where you found out if your dice liked you.
   Later on with the advent of 3rd edition, the amount of gold typically found after an encounter had gone up. The creation of magic items became formulized. Consequently, that's when I think I lost my sense of wonder with the game. I've been searching for it ever since, but the collective play style has evolved away from that. They all seem to want that custom item for their character. I even fell for it myself, once or twice.
   Part of it was the games got shorter. There seems to be a rush to get leveled up fast. They started cramming special abilities into every level you gained. You gained the levels, but as a player the fast leveling deprived you of experience in creative thinking. Why try and figure out a way around the orc infested hills, when you can just go to town and buy a fire ball scroll? Why pay the street urchins for information, when  you can just use the Scrying spell. You get he point...
   I don't think that you're having fun wrong. I think that maybe you're missing a chance to become that hero of legend by using your wits. Of course I also think the addition of skills diminish player creativity. But what do I know, I'm just an old man that doesn't really play anymore.

Go out and fun  however makes you happy. Happy gaming!