The different about ethereum in 2017 and this year 2019 is the price. We know how hype the ethereum 2 years ago. And people expect this year good price like before but its not easy because we know that its depend to the flow in the market. So even we compare it before and now it will be still hard what eth price will be in the future,if its high or low.
The differences is not only the price, but also the demand and the projects that using erc-20 was very nice and lot of investors invest on them.
Ethereum 2.0 is coming soon next year, and hope it brings back the throne of ETH as the best altcoin