My first digital camera was a Sony DSC-505. 2.1MP but took great photos due to the glass optics. Since it was heavy and usually only hauled out for special occaisions, the next one was a Sony W30. It was an impulse purchase at a Best Buy near the beginning of a motorcycle trip. 6MP
LOL - Like Seilerbird I started way before "megapixels" was a thing - LOL. There weren't even image storage standards, hence proprietary formats. Lot's of companies thought they would "win" by "capturing" the industry format - none of the "proprietary" standards ended up being a thing.
Cameras were bad but so were video cameras. Another big one was video formats. I had beta tape, VHS tape, VCD (multiple disks per movie) of which I still have a bunch, I got trapped briefly by 12 inch laser disks - 1 disk, 1 movie! but then mostly DVDs.
But the biggest one was PCs and Software. I started with a 286 chip and had to rebuild my PC every coupe of years through 386SX, 386DX, 486 etc. in reaction to Microsoft releasing ever bloated versions of windows and office and, and and...
Of all the conspiracies out there the most credible is Andy Grove and Bill Gates being in cahoots throughout the late 80s and 90s with planned obsolescence...
My biggest issue today is not being able to shoot native photos on my phone in 1280 X 1024. 5mb images are basically useless to me 95% of the time. I spend to much time reducing resolution for forum posts, blogs and eMail.
If you pay attention to my posts, 90% of my images are a screen shot cut and paste to get rid of pixels - LOL...