Yes, yes it is. AT&T is trying to make the new plans/offers more and more attractive, not just to grandfathered unlimited customers, but everyone.
One day you may decide it's worth it to change. There's nothing wrong with that. Just like there's nothing wrong with keeping your old services exactly the same. (both for you to keep them, and AT&T to keep them the same)
Whether it's tethering, facetime, some brand new X & Y service, it would be nice to have them, but there's no reasonable expectation you should expect to get them, without keeping up with the new plans
As for the generation gap, I have done texting quite a bit as a teen, but don't write that way in a unless I'm trying to keep it under 150 characters and even then rarely. It's an eyesore to read/make sense of.
-Alex