A decade ago we had Cisco with their Flip cam generation (e.g. the MinoHD). Then Canon took a hold of the YouTube vlogging scene with their G7X-series.
Since? I wish we would've seen a real contender from Panasonic and/or Sony, but both LX100 and RX100-series failed to impress me as of late and the DJI Osmo Pocket (or Action for that matter) is a too radical departure from a compactcam. The G7XmkII in meanwhile is feeling ancient, but its formula was so right...
All-in-one character for both stills and vid. Overcoming the inherent smartphone-look by opting for a fairly big sensor in combination with bright flexible zoom lens. Giving it a flippy touchscreen so you can monitor yourself. Might not have been the more elegant solution like the G5X that rocks the vari-angle type (which wouldn't block a hotshoe mic; then again, the G7X-series lacks this anyways), but oh well. Optical IS that actually works somewhat well. Same goes for C-AF. Colors that people find pleasing straight out of the camera, meaning you don't need extensive tweaking in post before hitting upload, which is a big deal for online content creators. Also, the built-in mic when using one of these adhesive windfluffies actually doesn't sound too much like utter crap, it's usable. You can get away with just having this camera around with you, which is why it was so popular.
But... it's old now. Give us 4K60p already. All with DPAF. And any resolution in 24p! And 1080p240. Give us efficient codecs that don't break so easily when pushed. Ultimately 10-bit colorspace, huge dynamic range and incredible noise performance. Would be nice to have a grippier body with weathersealing, improved EVF, bigger battery, dual cardslot, both mic-in as well as headphone out ports. Seen people asking for more zoom. Yeah... but they've got to be careful. I don't want to swap 24-100mm f/1.8-2.8 for say what Sony did with the RX100M6: 24-200mm f/2.8-4.5 (and drops off quickly). Maybe they call pull off a 24-135mm f/1.8-2.8 IS.
They just need a camera to make the Casey Neistats and Kasey Sterns (Cameraconspiracies) and well... me, of this world, happy and with that the whole scene of online content creators (YouTube/Instagram/Facebook/..). It's the no.1 question vloggers get 'what camera are you using?'. Everyone wants to get in on that YT money. There's a market there to sell cameras, but who's claiming its reign?
I think interchangeable lens cameras can be great for online content creation, but you've got to plan your shoots, it's not like you'll have all your gear with you at any time, it's just not convenient. And there's the threat of smartphone cameras... sure. But there's still the inherent smartphone look (deep depth of field, oversharpened, 'fragile'/'thin' footage, shaky, etc). So I personally don't think it's the death of premium compacts just yet... I now have a Pansonic LX100... but that as well is old, has a few downsides and its successor unfortunately didn't get the updates it deserved. I have a Sony HX99 because I wanted the flexible zoom for an Africa trip, but the sensor is too small, the sensitivity too little and the stabilization too ineffective. Who's gonna make the ultimate compact? Did Canon wait so long with the G7X/G5X-series successor because it's gonna do a helluva job? Or will we see Canon pulling a Canon and regurgitate old specs and cripple the cameras in many ways? I guess we'll just have to wait and find out...