As the sliding timescale goes on, Steve and Bucky's stories just get that much more poignant. When he was first reintroduced, Steve was twenty years out of time - jarring for him, yeah, and he didn't have anyone to go back to, but a random policeman recognized him. He had some old friends like Sharon's sister aunt, Arnie Roth, and the Invaders, and people he knew/rescued like Anna Kapplebaum, who were all middle-aged to old but still pretty mobile and active.
Time passes and the timescale slides, though. He's generally thought to have thawed around fifteen years before the "present", right? By now any stories involving people he knew have to have a reason for why they're not basically invalids(like Namor, Nick Fury, and Bucky). The old stories sort of quietly pass out of canon. Before long Cap and Bucky will have thawed and been unbrainwashed respectively after very nearly everyone they ever knew has died.
That's what this post made me think of. It's sad, really.