That's the way I usually check the bands as well.
Last time I was active on the HF was 2015, and bands were excellent. I was able to work most European and Russian stations with 3W Homebrew CW radio and 20 meter long wire in the garden on 20m most days. On 40m band during the days, it was so busy every frequency was filled with strong signals.
But now it seems very quiet. I do pick up some CW signals on 20, 40m bands but weaker and not busy at all. I even heard strong signals on 15m bands on some days, but rarely it happens.
On 80m, at night it is quite good. I was listening to some G stations and Europeans rag chewing there with good signals, and there were some contests too. Also heard special event station with GB callsign putting out strong and good audio on 3.785 Mhz.
Yeah, I agree that it is all about fun from the hobby, and it could be as trivial as listening to some bands, DIYing on simple receiver kit to ambitious running a kilo watts on multi element yagis with latest high tech rigs. It is so versatile and diverse, this hobby is.