A family member is in Germany this summer. He said he took a regional train from Aachen to Dusseldorf to Cologne. He said, at Dusseldorf Hbf, it was wall to wall people jostling each other to get on the train. He said there was a young couple with infant in a pram, who literally had to fight their way on a train because that train was already delayed 1+ hour and who knows when the next one will come.

The last time I took an DB ICE train was 20 years ago. It was a much more relaxed and pleasant experience then.