When I was living in MA. the fire dept. there was on 46.14 MHz. I took a vacation to Michigan and was hearing both my home town in MA. and Orange County, CA. clear as a bell. Even talked back to my home town with the fire radio in my truck.
Going across the Causeway bridge over lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, I was able to talk over a number of 6 meter ham repeaters up in Canada almost every day during the summer. Kind of surprised me the first time it happened. Then I got use to it and even made some friends via the skip conditions.
Problem is today, the 6 meter activity has really took a nose dive in the activity that is now there. The band still opens up and you have the skip. But with no one there, your talking to yourself. The 6 meter band is awesome. Again when I was living up in MA. I was able to talk with a couple of hams in Puerto Rico on a regular basis.
Use to know Sam Harris, W1BU real good. Even helped him repair some of his antennas at his home in MA. He took a job at the Arecibo Observatory and was maintaining the big antenna and transmitters there. He has since become a silent key, but he was a big name on 6 meters back then.
Don't write off the low band. It works for good distances under normal conditions. Gives great propagation when the skip is there.
The commercial side of the picture is a whole different picture. Motorola figured out many years ago that they can't make any money there. The people that are on low band have no need to update their radios. It isn't like the rest of the bands where these radio vendors cause everyone to keep buying new radios because they stop support of the radios they currently have.
You don't need a trunking system on low band because the density of the users won't support it and it's not needed. So I guess you could say that the radio vendors have basically killed any low band activity. They have all but stopped coming up with any new low band radios. Yes, you can still purchase a low band radio, but your options on the different radio vendors is getting limited. They have all figured out there is no money there and are pushing everyone to go to 700 / 800 MHz. There they can sell a pile of radios.
Sorry I have got long winded, but you asked some questions and I just figured I would pass along some personal comments on what has been happening. I still enjoy 6 meters for local activity. But the proliferation of all the computer devices is causing a bunch of noise to cause the noise floor to go way up. This can cause some locations to no be able to hear much except a real strong signal. This is the cause of many 6 meter repeaters to be taken off the air.
Jim