[D] Is Conference prestige slowing reducing?

There are ~4000 papers accepted at CVPR and ~5300 at ICLR.

At this point getting accepted feels like:

“wow I made it 😎”
camera pans to 5000 other Buzz Lightyears at the venue

This is probably good overall (more access, less gatekeeping, etc.). But I can’t help wondering:

• Does acceptance still mean the same thing?
• Is anyone actually able to keep up with this volume?
• Are conferences just turning into giant arXiv events?