Yeah, only a few years ago, F1 was much more affordable. Now it's insanely expensive, esp in the US. The Australian GP is the other end of the spectrum compared to COTA in terms of bang for your buck. This year iirc COTA 3-day GA tickets were $429 + taxes & fees. That's with one support series & 2 support races. At this year's Australian GP, you could sit in the most expensive grandstand for less than what that Austin GA pass costs. And that's for 4 days, with F1, F2, F3, V8 Supercars, & Porsche Carrera Cup. 5 support series for a total of 11 support races. Plus music, daily air shows, and more, and they have 3 or 4 support races just on Sunday alone. Most GP weekends fall somewhere between Oz & COTA.
Honestly, predictability is a problem most years in F1, but in the past, there was less reliability, more variability, and the cars, the engines, etc were so entertaining in and of themselves, that the predictabilty was something most people could overlook. The drivers were loud and brash, and the cars were louder and brasher. The whole F1 circus was louder & brasher, & not so polished. The drivers poured themselves out of the cars at the ends of races, looking like they'd just finished an Ironman Triathlon. The extreme nature of the racing, with far more pushing than they do now, the cars being twitchier and physically harder to handle, etc pushed the drivers extremely hard.