but i do think the fact that you have to pay for just about any modeling program that's considered "good" these days has caused the number of designers putting out all-purpose objects and scenery to dwindle.
Not necessarily have to pay for any modeling program, and not necessarily having to pirate said programs to avoid paying. Although that does come with its own cost: learning Blender takes time and is one thing that I've admittingly put off when I'd rather stay in my free educational license of 3DS Max which contains all the tools I know how to use. It's the unfortunate state of things, I guess.
However, I don't think NL1 is all that well-suited to general-purpose objects, particularly considering the pain in the ass it is to switch between objects and duplicate them whilst maintaining position/scaling. NL2 however, will resolve these issues if everything's as powerful as they said it is. If you think about it, creating in RCT is really just using a bunch of 3D objects thrown together, but the interface makes it quick and easy to do this. If we get close to this in NL2, there may end up being high demand for general purpose objects, from flat rides to fence/wall/roof building pieces. (Plus, NL is not gridlocked like RCT.)