Hmm.
I think the current state is.. incredible.
If you look at things objectively I don't know what other conclusions you can draw. Now, there's always going to be an old guard, the "back in my day" crowd that will lament the way things used to be and swear themselves cross-eyed that it's only ever gone down hill, having peaked at some hazy point in the distant past. They usually have a few good points, but on the whole? The FGC is thriving in ways it never dreamt of before.
Look at the FGC at it's most basic, the pillar of what it actually is.. a Fighting Game Community. The internet, forums, Discord, YouTube, Twitch, etc have made the community aspect world-wide, instantaneous and available to people it never would have been available to otherwise. The simple ability to communicate like that means j can discuss character specifics with a guy from Uganda and Scotland at the same time, in real time, any time. It means opinions - gold, pyrite or literal excrement - can move across the globe and effect discussion and generate feedback at practically light speed. The FGC has moved away from being hyper-concentrated pockets around a few keys places (No/SoCal, NY, etc) and become global.
It's global width and breadth isn't without some issue though. It's now super easy to be an asshole. People can unanimously run thier mouths and troll and cause trouble without the usual check that communities tend to have for that sort of thing - which is a swift smack in the mouth - but that's up to us as the FGC to stop tolerating and start inter-policing.more aggressively. I think the internet/global communities and communications are going to have to become more aggressively non-tolerant of trolls and filth as a whole actually, and this really weird "oh he's just a troll it's online bro" mentality needs some looking in to. I know the internet at large has a vested interest in maintaining a consequence free environment, so they can keep on showing how pathetic our race can be without any risk, but it's ballooning in to a huge issue across dozens of platforms and it's a bad look for any number of communities across the world, certainly not just the FGC
TIRED OF TYPING END PART ONE