Was the multiplex cinema as a concept unsustainable since the 2010s?

The audience numbers for North American and European moviegoers were declining from the halcyon days of the 1990s, but around 2010 Hollywood was so worried, they turned to Chinese audiences and investment.

And with Covid, Hollywood switched to VOD Premieres and now it's quick release. Multiplex cinemas with 8, 10, 12, 14 screens take up big cavernous spaces that cost high money to rent, are dependent on a constant flow of low to high budget movies, that are not coming at anything like the levels of 30 years ago. A lot of these cinemas are automated and run with a small amount of staff, they're so impersonal. There are movies running all day with screens 1/4 full, what a waste.

Yet they're increasingly expensive for Americans to drive there and park, buy tickets and popcorn and drinks. No wonder $20 for a 4K VOD vieweing at home is so tempting. Modern cinemas are just not value for money.

You know all of this already, but I want to know how can cinema chains be more personal or local to retain the spirit of moviegoing?

Should we have more arthouse cinemas like the Alamo Drafthouse or local cinemas like the small 3-screen cinemas in the "Main Street" of small Mid-West US towns?

I live in the UK, so I can take a bus ride to my nearest multiplex cinema. But I haven't been interested in going since before Covid. The last movie I saw at the cinema was Avengers: Endgame. Plus the part of town it is in, is getting run down with a lot of homeless and addicts.

But I would go to new arthouse cinemas that showed a range of classic and cult movies alongside the big movie of the week. A cinema that provided hot food and craft beer in a large foyer, would be great.

TL;DR Should multiplex cinemas be replaced by arthouse and drafthouse type cinemas.