In my opinion, lofi has had 3 eras. The 1980s and early 90s was its first and it didn't really have a name yet, but it was really more of a part of outsider music at the time. By listening to artists like Daniel Johnston and R. Stevie Moore, you can hear the lofi sound or at least it's beginnings with that low quality, low fidelity (lofi) sounds. Next you got the second era which is from about the mid 90s to mid 2000s. This was the lofi genre that you remember, the low quality floor noise-floor sounding music with just the right amount of imperfection. Bands like the Microphones, Pavement, and Neutral Milk Hotel are some of the famous lofi bands that helped pioneer the genre. Lastly, the third era, this is from about the late 2000s to now. Lofi has almost stopped being low quality music that you can enjoy, instead becoming nice, calm, meditative, relaxed, and downtempo. This new era of lofi mixed a lot of jazz into its pot as well which also helped genres like vaporwave become what it is today. The original lofi isn't gone, those bands from earlier still get thousands of plays monthly, they are definitely quite influential, and artists from not to long ago like lil peep and x have used lofi samples in their music and have done their own take on it. Lofi like most genres has evolved over time but all eras of it still get attention and respect which what is important because lofi is one of my favorite genres as a whole. I hope this has answered your question.