A Blast from the Past

My son asked me about setting exposure so I thought a look at a 'manual mechanical' camera might help. This is my wife's, much travelled/loved Pentax MX, which she used through the 80s and 90s. Photographed beside my Canon 50D it just shows how things have changed.
When the MX was new it was advertised as small and light, Pentax's effort to get into the professional market, a good camera but not so much better than the Canons and Nikons it was competing with to persuade any existing professionals to replace their whole kit.
The 50D starts off bigger and then gains a battery grip to give it 'balance'?
For myself - I think the immediacy and scope for post processing makes digital photography genuine progress, but perhaps the extra thought we used to put in before pressing the shutter release is something to be held onto?