I first ended up in Thailand for the same reason that a lot of 20 something people do - because it is globally known for being a very easy and inexpensive backpacking place. I had very little information about it other than what I had been told by my friends who had gone down this path before me and while having a "gap year" isn't really a thing in the United States, I decided to kind of have one. This had a lot to do with me not really being all that interested in the job prospects that were offered to me after I graduated from college and also because I had saved up a bunch of money and figured... what the hell, why not.
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I'll go ahead and admit that i am not old enough to have been part of what I have been told was the "true" backpacking heyday of Thailand. Those times, so I am told, consisted of being able to stay as long as you wanted to without much difficulty. It incorporated doing visa runs to get another stamp in your passport but there wasn't really any limit to how many times you could do this. It was a pain, I'm sure, but from the older folks that I talk to they tell me that they would approach the border with confidence because they knew that they were going to be let back in and let back in they were, every single time.
It didn't seem to matter if they had 2 months or 2 years of Thailand stamps already existing in their passport, the borders just didn't seem to care.
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If you were in the south you went to Malaysia, if you were in the west you went to Myanmar, if you were in the north you went to Laos, and if you were in the east you went to Cambodia. Virtually nobody ever had any issues with this.
Fast-forward to when I first came here in the mid 2010's. At that point Thailand was already cracking down on backpackers endlessly staying in the country and I was advised to get a 2 month visa, which was extendable once in the country and then if I still wanted to stay longer, I could have a try at going to a neighboring country to apply for another one. This was already a rather scary situation because if the answer was "no" then you were simply trapped in that country with no ability to get back in. Thankfully, I was granted a visa because I did my research and found out which embassies were "easy" and went to one of those. I also paid an agent who told me that they had a guy on the inside. So I don't know if I was legitimately entitled to my visa or not, but I got one.
During those times it was pretty evident that Thailand was becoming less interested in budget travelers and was more interested in people that were going to come here, spend a crap-ton of money in 2 weeks, and then go home. I can understand this from a taxation point of view because your average backpacker probably spent less money in 4 months than these wealthy travelers did in 2 weeks. I never understood why they would want to eliminate the cheap-charlies though, because even though they weren't spending much, they were still spending.
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I noticed on my trip that hostels had adapted and instead of trying to cater to budget travelers that were there for months they were trying to capture the youthful "booze tourism" market which wasn't really a thing when I first started out. Most of these folks were well aware of the fact that they were not going to be allowed to stay in the country for more than 60 days and were partying it up all day, every day. This is not really my scene but I did participate in it a bit.
I guess I just don't like being hungover so much and these places seem to specialize in curing you of your hangover by getting you drunk again. The rooms are damn near free but they get a ton of money out of you via all-day drinking events. There was plenty of vomit involved in these things but hell, the people had fun so I'm not going to judge.
I'm sure this is a lot of fun for people, but as I approach 30, I think that this type of tourism results in you missing out on a lot of what Thailand, and other places have to offer because you don't remember any of it and just have a headache all the time. I once stayed in a hostel that wouldn't even allow anyone over the age of 30 to stay there at all.
By the time I moved here, the backpacking scene had changed dramatically, and as far as people that were just staying here for "as long as they felt like it".... well, that segment didn't really exist anymore and when I would travel around I started noticing what was previously considered the "backpackers part of town" didn't really exist anymore. These businesses had their customer-base stripped from them and I guess they just gave up because the only youthful travelers that remained seemed to be exclusively interested in party hostels.
This was all before Covid of course. Covid completely wiped out all segments of tourism here in Thailand and for most of the world as well. Now Thailand is playing around with who they are going to let in the country and I am very curious to see if they will consider returning to their decades' old plan of just letting anyone in and letting them stay for as long as they want.
As it stands now if you want to live in Thailand long-term you need a job and a work permit like me, or you can get an education visa for a few years after which point they don't give them to you anymore. I'm not really certain how that works but I do know a few of my friends that after studying Thai or some sort of martial arts for a few years were told that they can't have another one. The other segment is the retirement visa but you have to be 50 years old and be able to prove that you have a steady income to be eligible for that.
I suppose this is all moot for me though because I don't plan on staying here for much longer. I'm in the process of deciding at the moment if I want to renew my teaching contract another year or just finally head back to USA to find a real job. After years of living like I have I'm not terribly excited by that prospect. Living overseas changes you and the "keeping up with the Joneses" and commuting and consumerism is not something that I am looking forward to participating in.