keystring I suspect that that combination of digital pianos, and the Internet making learning more accessible than it once was, there may be more people playing piano then there used to be.
I think what's different now, with, as you rightly point out, access to inexpensive digitals and self-study materials, is that more adults are starting to piano (as beginners) than in the past. But I think overall, there are fewer pianos (of any kind) in homes, and fewer children taking piano lessons than in past generations.
I get what you're saying, that you didn't see pianos when you were growing up.
But I do believe that, in general, it was far more common for people to have pianos in their homes in generations past, and it was far more common for children to take piano lessons than it is today.
I would be willing to be bet that if you plotted a chart with the number of children learning piano, and the number of children playing on soccer teams, the piano number would go down year after year, while the soccer number would go up (probably quite sharply starting in the 1990s).
Another number that's going down is the number of piano tuners and techs, and piano stores. 🙁
BTW when I was a kid, my paternal grandparents had a piano at home but my maternal grandparents did not. Of the three families of my aunts/uncles, two of them had pianos at home and those cousins took lessons. Unfortunately, we lived maybe a full day's drive from those relatives, and there was never a piano in the house where I lived, although my father had an upright for a time, but it was after my parent's separated. I can remember at least two other friends who had pianos at home when I was growing up as well.
In fact, I always wanted to play the piano and was jealous of all those instruments, which all seemed just out of my reach.
Anyway, @keystring