In the European Conference for Artificial life, some of my dear peers complained about the average quality of the articles.

It reflects the experience of my peers with scientific publishing.
My experience mirrors theirs, but.

I recall: the first contact with Artificial Life is a refreshing and dazzling experience. But the more one reads (anything in the field), the more anything starts to sound uninspired and repetitive.

True. But ideas are as gold (novelty) in mines (journals): the more one extracts, more elusive the gold.

But t'has always been so: explorers are the discoverers.

Heraclitus said: those that search for gold dig much dirt and find little.

Disbelievers have always stayed at home or given up in face of adversity.
Selling their gold claims cheap.