We don't use them much now not because people are more concrete (????) but because they aren't haven't heard of proverbs.

Zed, are you saying that nowadays people aren't familiar with proverbs [aka aphorisms] like "a rolling stone gathers no moss"?

If true, that's rather startling. How do you account for this? Is it all part of the general dilution of literacy in schools which began with the elimination of memorized passages, usually poetry?

If we are raising students with no awareness of the aphorisms which have been part of our common language, in some cases, for hundreds of years, and no awareness of poetry, who will write the speeches which future leaders will deliver to the generations to come? Will our leaders stir the masses with rap verses? [Perhaps, it has already come to that.]