You are bringing something up that was changed in the 1980s.
It doesn't matter what happened 40 years ago, when the cpi measurement is trailing 12 months.
You must always compare apples to apples .
If you find yourself comparing apples to oranges you are in trouble.
The change was to look at "comparables" if the hottest video game system was atari previously. And today it is Xbox, that is a comparable.
If it was the latest flip phone and now it is a flip phone with touch screen, that is a comparable.
It's an entire basket of goods that is being measured. People on the internet who are not educated on the topic, ruin things for others.
The thing that matters is how much change has there been, period.
And yes, things suck right now