I only discovered tr00 metal about six years ago and have only been a series listener for about the past four, so the \m/ was probably already a cliche by the time I first encountered it. I know exactly what you mean though, because it seems to have lost all meaning as the vast majority of people use it out of context, either unwittingly, or maybe for the sake of being intentionally ironic. Either way, the once proud metal horns have gone the way of the word "Fuck."
I have to disagree with you on this. Calling power metal vocals and folk metal arrangements cheesy borders too closely on calling opera and classical music cheesy. Obviously, there are a lot of main stream music fans out just "don't get it," and will say something like "seriously, who actually sings like that?" not realizing that from the perspective of a truly educated musician, opera is arguably one of the truest forms. Then these little idiots try to imitate operatic vocals completely oblivious to the fact that they're doing it wrong and say "you see, that doesn't even sound good."
