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Notes -
A quick google search of the newer songs you reference reveals they are all "co-written" by the referenced artists. All the other co-writers are professional industry vets: song writers and arrangers who work mostly in pop music, which modern country is a sub genera of. The co-writer credits for the performer are usually a legal/financial arrangement. Its very likely they had little to no creative input in these songs, though I could be wrong I don't think I am. While modern pop-country likes to tie itself to older country artists and imply a continuity, on the business side there is very little. What there is is much more related to Conway Twitty than Johnny Cash. FWIW I am a huge fan of original country western and old time music but I start to fall off when they started adding string sections (not fiddles, which are pure) and horns in the 60s.
Country still sells records and makes money off of it. Standard pop less so and rock has been dead from a music-business point of view for a while. Like any business they want reliable output that moves units and sells tickets. The trend you're seeing is not anything driven by performers or fans, its professional pop songwriters. The same sort of people that write songs for Taylor Swift. Probably some of the exact same people.
The sort version of this is that country songs were a lot more complementary of the performer when they were actually written by the performers, which they largely aren't anymore. Modern country is pop music with accents, slide guitars and rural themes.
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