This is true, there is a selection bias and it's nice to be able to rely on it, but still the problem is exponentially worse these days. Think about how many people were in the world 200 years ago vs today. There was 1 billion people on the Earth in 1807 according to Wikipedia, with around 15% literacy. That's 150 million, but the data is likely largely estimated and the site states this is "the share of adults who could read and write a simple statement about their every day life" so it's possible that many would be barely considered literate in our every day life. But still, we'll consider 150 million with the potential to write a novel, then add in the difficulty in printing books, relative lack of publishers which would lead to more rejected novels, and you can imagine how small the number of books were actually printed each year. I wouldn't be surprised if a dedicated reader with substantial funds could actually read all of the novels released in their language every year. Thus the novels that were touted as the best of the best in the 1800s, probably really were deserving of that description, or close to it.
Compare that to today. We have over 8 billion humans with 85% global literacy. That is 6.8 billion literate individuals. That's over 45 times the number of potential authors. Account for the ease of acquiring sufficient free time and materials to write, the relative quantity of publishers, the ease of printing/digital release, the options for self publishing, and the availability of translation. The quantity of books released every day today is so enormous that even a dedicated person diligently reading every available hour of every day could only read a tiny fraction of the novels that are available. Perhaps there are novels being written that make Charles Dickens look like a rank amateur, but the fact of the matter is that the absolute tidal wave of quantity means that the quality of a book is almost completely divorced from its popularity and that success as an author comes largely down to marketing and luck. I almost can't blame people for believing that amateur works are writings of great brilliance when it's possible to read a hundred books released this year that sold well without emerging from the sphere of mediocrity.
You are right that this problem exists in other mediums as well. I'm developing a bit of a block about gaming recently because of this same problem. Perhaps there are a dozen games out there that would appeal perfectly to me and I would love more dearly than my absolute favourites, but searching for them is akin to searching for popcorn twists among an ocean of styrofoam peanuts.
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