You worded your initial response like you were referencing actual stats about software. I'm sure you think you and your colleagues are reliable sources, but to the rest of the world, they aren't.

Every single one of those statements was subjective. Don't be fooled by my use of the word 'metric'. It is, frankly, amazing that people here expect one to have facts and citations for every little nitty point.

It's not about having a "fact or citation for every nitty point"... It's about having even a tiny grain of self-awareness before making a statement about the global state of software in 2017, and perhaps having the self-awareness to know that, generally speaking, your anecdote ("citation") is meaningless.

I guess at some point I need to stop being surprised that HN comments are really no better than Reddit's.

I'm going to challenge those citations, then.