Why are the first 9a's very seldom repeated nowadays

Action Directe was set up in 1991 by Wolfgang Güllich and it is considered as the first 9a. It has been done 16 times but only Alex Megos has done it during the last 2.5 years. The other first seven 9a's, see below, have just, in total, been repeated a couple of times the last five years. Add to that that the latest of the four repeats of the first 8c+, but where also 9a has been mentioned, Hubble by Ben Moon in 1989, was done five years ago and you might wonder why are the first 9a's very seldom repeated nowadays? Here are the seven first 9a's, after Action Direct, which have just in total been repeated a couple times the last five years. 1993: Om by Alexander Huber, Hugh by Fred Rouhling, Bain de Sang by Fred Nicole 1994: Weisse Rose by Huber 1995: Akira 9b by Fred Rouhling, 1996: Open Air by Huber, The Big Ben by Neil Carson First of all, the FA guys and all the repeaters long time ago, should be given all the credit. Josune Bereziartu did Bain de Sang 2002 and Ondra has suggested an upgrade for Open Air to 9a+. During 2014, some 60 guys will probably make some 100 9a ascents but are they equally hard as the first 9a's and even Action Directe was originally graded XI which was converted to 8c+/9a. The possible explenations for why we see more and more 9a ascents but less of the first ones might of course be grade inflation but also that the popular 9a's of today seems to be steeper and longer more endurance based challenges. With all great indoors gyms, it might feel just easier to focus on endurance training. If Güllich Moon and Huber would have tried Era Vella, they might have said it was 9a+. However, as the grade scale is based on how hard the community thinks different routes are, it might be time to do carry on with some more upgrades of Huber's routes and officially also call Hubble 9a. What do you think? On the picture by Huberbaum, Alex Huber does Om, which originally was 8c+ but Ondra said 9a and possibly, it is a stiff one compared to the 2014 9a standard, or even 9a+?