I'm mostly too old to go to clubs, but to me techno and other electronic music is not about stages or visual effects, quite the opposite. Well OK, VFX can be cool.

But getting lost in music, in a darkened room with some intentionally disorienting VFX; or simply none, loud electronic music in a room with many people is already quite an experience...

that's quite different from being at a festival or at a show like this, which looks more like a musical opera performance to me.

For big room EDM, was there ever a time when it was not about laser shows etc?

I mean there's nothing wrong with stage shows, pop music and lasers.