Why the facination with integrated amps?

It's nice to have options.  I have separates in my main system.  I have more space and am more concerned about sound quality in the main system. 

I have an integrated in my home office (Audio Research VSi55).  I have a tuner, turntable, and DAC connected to it.  Volume is usually pretty low and it's mostly background music (either the tuner or Spotify or Tidal through the DAC) but if it's a slow day or a late night of work, I will crank it up every once in a while.  I have a pair of Klipsch Heresy I speakers with a bunch of Bob Crites upgrades and the sound quality is very pleasing those times I do crank it up.

In my computer room I have a Heed Elixir integrated and a turntable, DAC, and Sony headphone amp.  I have some space limitations in that room.  The Heed doesn't take up much space and will drive my Canton speakers louder than I can listen to them.  The sound quality is excellent and the headphone amp in the Heed, while not as refined as the Sony is excellent.  It also has a phono pre, I haven't tried it yet, but by all accounts it's quite good.

I also have a Peachtree Nova 300 which has a great amp, dac, and phono preamp.  Quite frankly it has more bells and whistles than I need and it is currently for sale (replaced by the Heed).

The integrateds I own meet (or exceeded) my needs and were affordable options for the space and use I bought them for.  While not as good as my main system, if something happened and I had to downsize, I'd be really happy with either one of the systems I've built around my integrateds. 

@fsonicsmth I am in the wine business, for 26 years now, and I can tell you that not filtering wine makes a huge difference both in flavor profile but more importantly in terms of ageability. I was fortunate to taste two versions of a wine made by the same producer at about 15 years of age and the filtered wine tasted like a shadow of itself.

And I think the primary reason people, and companies, are moving to integrateds has a lot to do with smartphones and wireless and basically many devices getting smaller and at the same time more functional. No surprise some audiophiles, especially younger ones, would desire more functions in a smaller package.

The other end of that scenario, one that's happening more frequently these days, is the older audiophile retiring and moving to a smaller home. Or perhaps just not wanting to deal with lots of bulky heavy equipment.

There are many practical advantages to integrated amps so its good to see they are being taken more seriously by audio companies.

A separate amp and preamp has the flexibility that an integrated does not have!

I used to favor many "boxes" in my system then had a sea change toward simplicity and less boxes....now I use a tube integrated fed by a streamer DAC...I'm very satisfied.

OP we could not possibly disagree more. Oh well, it is the nature of these threads. Noise, noise, noise and noise again.  If you think short signal paths mean nothing, then I cannot help you. You asked why integrated gear is hot and you now need to be open minded about the reasons and possibilities. Carry on.