Put it this way: if you're willing to pay $700 for a GPU (no matter the generation) yet unwilling to pay more than ~$300 for your monitor, that is ... wait for it ... unwillingness. There have been GPUs perfectly capable of handling >60fps @1440p for years below $700, and there have been 1440p>60Hz monitors at relatively reasonable prices for just as long. And while I'm in no way denying the effect of high refresh rates on perceived visual quality or the gaming experience as a whole, unless one is a die-hard esports gamer I would say 1440p120 beats 1080p240 every time.
I mentioned 1440p@120+ and 2160p@60, because that is why someone most likely was willing to go for a 700€+ card, actually much more giving Turing's pricing.
Further, the reference point was 1080p@144+ with all the jazz (Paneltype, proper HDR, colorspace, contrast, backlighting, etc.), which is indeed readily available for ~200-300€.
Add to that a beefy system to max everything in 1080p at those framerates ~800 to 1000€. All said and done, 1080p goodness for ~1000 to 1500€. (or just a single AIB RTX 2080 Ti)
1440p@120+ and 2160p@60 displays with the same properties ~500€ to "the sky is the limit"€ add a system to match, easily an additional 2500€+.
Even with the RTX 2080 Ti, you still had to fiddle with settings to really enjoy those resolutions on such displays in current titles and some from past years.
Pascal didn't have the horsepower, Turing was horridly overpriced (while also still kinda lacking the performance).
Just Ampere now (and hopefully RDN2), at a sufficient performance envelope as well as a more reasonable price point, made it feasible to really jump to 1440p@120+ and 2160p@60 without compromising for anything you had with 1080p.
It was just a pricy compromise in the past, a trend which now changes and hopefully gains more traction, that's why I questioned the term "unwillingness" in regards to 1080p users.
I totally agree that 1080p gets rather long in the tooth. Regarding the pace, tech went from 4:3 resolutions to 16:9 720p, 1080p, and an excursion to ultra and "ultra-ultra "-wide.