I think there is an other issue, which is that in the time when most of us got involved with computers they were devices in which almost anything could be done but hardly anything had been done, this attracted people who were explorer types, but also people who wanted something to be on the computer that there wasn't would be pushed to developing it themselves.

Now we live in an age where multiple versions of nearly everything seems to be available. Just buy what you want, don't learn to make it would seem to be the imperative of the day.