i cut my skincare down to 3 products and my skin got better and im kinda mad about it

so embarrassing but i was doing the full 7 step routine for almost 2 years. toner essence serum spot treatment moisturizer oil spf. the whole thing. spent way too much money on fancy actives. my skin was fine i guess but i had this weird dullness and random breakouts i couldn't figure out. got really busy two weeks ago and couldn't be bothered so i just did cleanser + moisturizer + spf. no actives, nothing layered, like the most basic routine possible. my skin looks. better??
the texture i was trying to fix with 50 products just kinda went away. breakouts stopped. i'm honestly a little annoyed because i wasted so much money trying to fix problems i was probably creating myself.
is this the skin minimalism thing everyone keeps talking about or was my barrier just destroyed this whole time. lowkey scared to add anything back now