I'm probably nothing more than a weekend golfer myself, but I've played more golf since Covid hit than any other time in the past 20 years. In the last year, I've played about a dozen courses in CA, and another half-dozen in MN/WI, and I've noticed two trends across the board.... One, there are definitely far fewer yardage markers on most courses than there were 3-5 years ago. I grew up playing courses that, at the very least, had the 150 marked on both sides of the fairway... with a post, painted rock, etc. And, a lot of the courses, particularly the nicer ones, would have sprinklers with yardage as well. Now, good luck finding either of those on probably half of the courses I've played. You'll be lucky to find the mid-fairway painted stones at 100/150/200, and even those are many times so faded that you can't really tell what color you're looking at.
Two, the in-cart GPS systems are mostly a thing of the past. A few years ago, I was seeing a trend in which more and more courses were adding them. Now, out of about 20 courses played this year, I've seen them twice. Both courses (Pete Dye course at the Westin in Palm Springs and Ojai Valley Inn resort) were in the $150-250/round range (I paid less through Groupon, golf apps, etc.), so maybe it's still a thing at courses in that range. It's just not something that the standard/average course is looking to do any more. Probably because of a combination of cost, and there are just so many other options for players to find yardage these days.
My GF got me the Gogogo Sport VPro range finder for Christmas. Having never had one before, I definitely like it. Haven't exactly figured out how accurate it is (it gives an adjusted distance based on uphill/downhill that I'm not sure makes complete sense), but in terms of getting a rough idea, it's good enough for me. That said, if I wasn't opposed to wearing a watch, it seems like the GPS option would be easier than trying to zap a pin every time (the hardest part of using the range finder for me is getting my hand to be still enough to make sure I'm hitting the flag, and not a tree branch 20 yards behind it... LOL).
I do have one question, for those who use an app or GPS watch.... Do they typically give you distance to the pin, or just middle/back/front of the green?