What's all the fuss about late 70s and earl 80s run of the mill midfi turntables?

Wow, I had a Philips 212 - I loved that table. Not that it sounded amazing, it was fine with the AT cartridge I had, but my friends were just so jealous. It was cool looking overall, then with the strobe, and the best, it also had those touch lit buttons. 

Once the buttons didn't light up anymore I sold it and got an Acoustic Research and a Micro Research 2002 cartridge. I might have that cartridge wrong, it's been 30 years now and more upgrades then I want to admit. But that was a great upgrade. 

Yep, I sold many of my records back when CD's came out, got at most $1.00 each for them, luckily I did keep a few and yes, the values have gone way over what I paid.

Why? Records are fun. I'm using it to teach my niece and nephew to listen to music, not just have it running in the background or only with cheap earplugs. Although it took a while before they understood not to hold the records sideways between their fingers! 

My records have appreciated more than my 401k.

Cant believe the revival in vinyl, every record I have is worth more than I paid, 

I bought a Thorens TD126 MKII—in the late 1970s I think—and just had it serviced and put back into operation with an Audio Technica VM540ML cartridge.  I am quite frankly stunned at the quality of sound I am getting out of some 1980s audiophile LPs—Sheffield and a couple of 45 rpm LPs.  I don’t think my setup is anything special, but the sound is so … “organic,” alive, vibrant, “ really real.”  And that is with a Schiit Audio Mani2 phonomstage.  Wondering if a MC cartridge would make a further significant improvement, I am now researching phono stages now to upgrade, looking at Sutherland Insight, LoungeAudio LCRIII with his SUT, and others.

Would the OP consider my Thorens TD166 Mk II mid fi from the 1980s?  Bought it new in 1984 because I thought turntables would vanish 😆 and I wanted solid West German(!) engineering that would last.  Got it with two carbon fiber arm wands.  39 years later, and it sounds great with either Ortofon OM 40 or Denon DL160.  Had it modded a bit 12 years ago to damp the platter, upgrade the cables, and replace the feat with adjustable cups that hold racquet balls.

All I can say is that when I listen to needle drops done on that rig, through the phono preamp in my McIntosh C220 pre, using my Sweetvinyl Sugarcube to clean up the record and digitize it at 96/24 or 192/24, the sound often beats the hi res versions on Qobuz, especially in terms of soundstage width and height.

I sometimes think about some of the modern, moderately priced DD offerings from Thorens, Technics and Music Hall, but I just can't seem to justify spending the money to fix something that isn't broken.

Having been around all those years, I agree with the OP that most of what was popular in the heydey of vinyl was mediocre.  Thorens floaters were an exception…basically AR done better.  Before Linn hit the scene German rim drives were the standard…Dual, Miracord, PE. But in the esoteric background there were Garrard 301s, Rek-O-Kut, Weathers.  Then Panasonic launched the SP10, and many others dove into Direct Drive.  Denon and Luxman also made some very good ones, as did JVC.  These are still credible if given adequate vibration decoupling and properly matched with cartridge.  The midfi is still meh. Then too, there was B&O, did anyone here ever use a TX2 with MMC2?  At my store, the gold standard setup was a B&O table with an MMC3, a Nakamichi cassette deck, a Yamaha or Nakamichi receiver, and a/d/s/ speakers, all day long.