I haven't consciously listened to any modern trance music so I'm listening to some Above and Beyond, someone who's production I've always admired. It's very well made, well produced, very ethereal...but I don't really connect with it.
Now listening to the legendary Sanctuary mix of Silence by Delirium ft Sarah McLachlan, which I liked quite a bit back then. It's more minimal than Above and Beyond, and theres more polyrhythms going on which makes it more interesting for me.
Maybe what ruined trance for me was the early 2000s when it was everywhere..DJ Sammy, Heaven, Ian Van Dahl Castles In The Sky..the more cheeseball stuff that was highly accessible and on the radio and I just recoiled from it. That same gated trance sequence, that same two note octave bass, those same pads, and as I say again, Groove-less and sex-less, but thats not what the genre is about probably.
Of course commercial house has the Guetta's and Dave Aude's and such.
I do remember older trance..Paul Van Dyk, BT, Sasha and Digweed, Jam and Spoon..it all seemed really well produced.
I guess growing up 30 miles outside of Chicago, house was just inescapable.