Kapusta

I believe you are using your experience with one ill-fitting bike to draw some bad conclusions about bars, stems, and "modern riding position".

Modern riding position - even with the short stems - is actually farther forward than it used to be.

Running a wide bar pulls you forward. It does not push you back. This is why, when people started swapping out for wider bars, they usually shortened the stems.

Of course, the wider bars only account for part of the move from 120-135mm mm stems in the 90s to the 40-50mm stems you see today. The rest has to do with 2 changes in frame design.

1. Top tube lengths have grown over the past 20 years. While there has always been a wide range of sizing from brand to brand, 20 years ago, 22.5" would be a typical ETT length for a medium. 10 years ago that would be 23". Now it is around 23.5".
2. Meanwhile frame reach (a much more important number if you want to know how for forward/back you are going to be over the BB) has grown even more. Way more. And along with this, seat tube angles have also gotten steeper.

So a typical modern bike with 780mm bars and 50mm stem actually positions you farther forward than that bike from the 90s. Or one from 2010.

Bike geometry and cockpit setup have been changing a lot over the past 20 years, and different riding techniques are needed. But there is a reason most people who ride single-track have embraced things like wide bars, shorter stems, and the frame geometries that go with them. Even XC racers - who are late to the party on virtually every trend - are running wide bars and shorter stems (albeit not as much as trail riders or Enduro racers). Over the past 20 years, people have figured out what makes a better fit and geometry for MTBs, rather than just setting them up like road bikes like they did 25 years ago. So if you are still chasing that Roadie riding position from your days racing in 1994... yeah, modern bikes are not going to work for you. They are build for mountain biking, not gravel racing.