I thought this until I read the longer version of The Stand where he’d put a load of padding back in and updated all the cultural references to the late 80s for no good reason.

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 3 points 6 days ago

King has almost always written his stories in the immediate present. There are a few exceptions, but they are intentional and critical to the plot. In all the others, it is fully in keeping with his style to update cultural references to set the story in the recent past, the now, or the very near future. He is a contemporary writer of contemporary stories, that is fundamentally the reason. King also seems to feel no loyalty to preserving his past works. He is alive. His stories are more about the lives of the characters than fashion or pop culture. I'm not always a fan of his revisions either (The Gunslinger being a good example), but it's part of the total package of his writing philosophy.