I don't think as highly of the Arista material as I do of earlier Aretha. She remains a fantastic talent but I don't care for the arrangements, production, rhythm sections, etc as much. In all honesty I lost interest in almost all contemporary R&B around the time Aretha went to Arista. It all started to sound like an imitation of itself, but with less groove and freedom. The rhythm sections were tight but not spontaneous and in Aretha's case, she sounded to me like she was mailing it in. Maybe I just od'd on that type of thing and it was a case of me getting older and not digging the newer things, but in all honesty it seemed like most of my musician friends jumped ship a little before I did.
I agree, there was an increasing uniformity and less and less individuality in the music. For me it began to go downhill in the 1970s.