It’s a reasonably accurate description of the large majority of existing guides. I only looked at a few dozen examples, but every one of them was just a localised list of taxa with each entry having only the default minimal Wikipedia summary/links. This is why I think it’s fair to say it’s a failed experiment: most of the actual guides that have been created don’t provide anything that isn’t already provided elsewhere on the site. They could do - but they don’t.
Nothing has gone away. There are no plans to delete the existing guides, and it’s still possible to create new ones. For anyone interested, see this tutorial on the forum:
It would be extremely helpful if you provided links to some of the guides you have created yourself. The best way to argue your case is to lead by example.