They still existed with animals during my early childhood, (2005-2010) but my memory for this is a blur. They had elephant rides, but I was a super skittish and cautious kid and wouldn't do it. Now I'm glad, because I don't support that at all. Can't remember if they had lions but I'm pretty sure they did.
Our internet is notoriously bad too. We live in a forest, and have to use three router boxes through the house. We still get bad signals, but it's not unbearable anymore. I don't like how Netflix will constantly remove movies, and I feel like I turn super picky when using these services too. That's my fault of course, but I can never decide what I feel like watching.
I thought that was the main appeal of kirby (power ups) so less seems kind of silly. I don't like the collectable part of platformers and generally just want to run through the levels as fast as possible. Some started requiring hunting collectables and it totally ruined my enjoyment.