There are only a few story archetypes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots). However there are an infinite number of ways to put words together to tell those stories. (most of those infinite are bad, but that still leaves a lot of room for interesting stories that are enough different as to be enjoyable)

That is precisely the sadness of it. How barren stories have become, how limited humans have turned out to be in the way they see themselves.

Whatever it was before all that, it's probably lost forever. Whatever is new gets instantly absorbed and recategorized, it can't be avoided.

There's only so much recombinations of those basic grand themes you can do before noticing it.