Joining a hot research trend is like buying a stock when the price is high.
These neural network pioneers (like Hinton, LeCun, etc.) started their works not when the field was hot, but when it was considered a dead end. And they stuck with it for decades until the right circumstances (e.g., GPU compute finally became feasible). Now, every time a new idea (about generative X or whatever) pops in the head, there might already be 10 arXiv papers on it.
It is important to know any significant new advancements, but it is even more important to figure out what and how to apply these into our own research and be able to formulate our own (unique) vision.