When I was 30, I could do a dozen pull-ups. By the time I was 40, I could do zero pull-ups.
Lat pull-downs, barbell/cable rows and face-pulls, and pull-up negatives got me back. Tried it out a few months ago, and I could do five. Now I do 50-100 five days a week, super-setted with overhead pressing, close-grip bench and squats.
Once I could do pull-ups again, there was near-instant back growth, it was genuinely like the work knitted together all of the disparate back work I'd been doing. Core got stronger, conditioning improved, feel beastly cranking out set after set. It's worth the work to get there.
People overlook bodyweight exercises, but what's more fundamental than push-ups, pull-ups and dips? How much of human history has hinged upon being able to climb a tree (so wolves don't eat you/your kids?) They work wonders.