>>> good developers solve problems, not languages or tools
>> At 25 years I have come to really appreciate some tools ability to help.
I've come to find there is a bidirectional connection between good developers and their tools. Good devs recognize and gravitate towards systems that help them thrive, and away from painful ones. Good tools draw in good devs, and the community gets stronger as a result.
IMHO, One hallmark of less-than-stellar devs is a tendency to stick with tools they are familiar with, because "it works." Great devs could get by with a magnetized needle and a steady hand, but they know there is better out there.
At 15 years I thought the same. At 25 years I have come to really appreciate some tools ability to help.
There are a lot of tools that claim to help but don't. Beware of tools that try to manage complexity - what you probably need is to reduce complexity. I'm looking at Eclipse and Matlab in particular, and anything similar (think enterprise software).
Git - awesome. Using it on 1-man projects too.
Sanitizers for C++ I've seen these identify bugs that hadn't manifested visibly yet.
Rust - well I want to write more because it doesnt require additional tooling to write correct code. Remember reducing complexity.