Yeah, I think that is a thing in a lot of different fields, probably to different degrees. All the people in the field have already trudged through the fundamental examples themselves, so why write it down? The interesting stuff is the cutting edge, not that baby stuff.
Nah for real though, it's quite frustrating. Honestly the whole field (and academia at that rate) is, I don't blame you at all for bailing. I'm sunk-costing myself through at this point.