The wood era was a little boring to me, albeit not at the time- at the time it seemed great. But now to go back and watch the old matches from the 60's and 70's even early 80's is a little bit hard. Perhaps, it's partly due to the poor quality of the video technology of the time. I love S&V mixed in with in all court style but in the 60's and 70's some guys could only S&V; or at least that's all they choose to do.
The rallies back then were either extremely short or extremely long pusher-type rallies (think Solomon v Dibbs or even Borg v. Vilas at FG). Please note I am not calling Borg or Vilas pushers- Its just that it was almost impossible to be an aggressive baseliner. Perhaps Connors, Laver, Rosewall, Nastase were the only ones in that time that could really dictate from the baseline and all of those guys finished a ton of points at net and Laver, Rosewall, Nastase were top (or near top) notch volleyers. So while I appreciate the artistry and athleticism that it took to play in that era and while I think almost all of those qualities are missing from the modern game- the wood/metal era was a little too lacking in exciting back and forth baseline rallies for my taste.
The modern era of course can be extremely boring with super long, hyper top spin rallies, lack of attacking tactics, lack of artistry, lack of individuality in terms of styles. In this era I only want to watch a match if there is a really compelling match-up; which will have include one of the few "different" or "unique" players of the modern era- like if the match contains one of following players: Federer (not that he's necessarily all-courter just that he has a lot a variety off of the ground, not just top spin all the time off both wings), Dolgopolov, Roanic (i know he's pretty modern player but he does mix it up once in a while with all-court tennis), Tomic. So if Federer plays Djokovic, or Dolgo plays Djokovic I enjoy the match but if say Ferrer plays Djokovic I find the match unwatchable for long periods of time.
That being said I pretty much agree with OP on the best era to watch, with some caveats-
I would say about 2 years into the intro of graphite or in other words at time time of widespread graphite adoption- so somewhere around 1986 and into the 90's was the best technology era to watch.
There were many compelling stylistic match-ups possible then between the
- the first aggressive baselines like Lendl, Agassi, Connors, Arias, Krickstien,later Courier
- Defensive baselines like Wilander, Mecir, later Chang, a host of clay courters
- All courters like Becker, later Sampras, later Goran, later Stich, later krajicek
-S&V'ers Mac, Edberg, Cash, Noah later Rafter, Curren.
I think this was a great era- perhaps it was just after the vaunted "golden era" but I think it was a little more fun to watch.
I also was good with the Mid-90's and the more powerful graphites combined with the still fast surfaces. Sure some matches became almost pure serving contests but there was still a lot of high quality match ups and differing styles.
I also think the time period from say 1999 to 2003 was very watchable. Many may disagree with me on this one because they will argue that this era is too similar to the current one but I beg to differ. I think that the surfaces were much faster, I don't think poly was yet omnipresent, and there were still stylistic differences with people like Rafter, Goran, Sampras winning or coming close to winning GS finals.
Also, this was a time when some of the greatest aggressive baseliners were around playing great tennis. I think the Agassi v Federer matches of this time (even 2004 and 2005) is the greatest ball striking I have ever seen; I would also include Agassi v. Safin, and matches involving Nalbandian, Baggy, maybe Hewitt.
So in summary I would rank the era's in this order:
1) graphite/oversize mass adoption era (1985/1986 to early 1990's)
2) mature graphite/oversize, early poly, but still surface variety era (1999 to 2003/2004)
3) early graphite/oversize, end of wood/metal (1978 to 1984/1985) era "Golden Era"
4) "serving contests" era, (Mid 1990's)
^) Tie- Wood/Metal era (1968 to 1977)
6) Tie- Modern/Poly/Automaton/Drone with a few unique cats era (present day)
