There's a bit of The Toolmaker's Dilemma in both woodworking and programming.

You can work on a project, or you can work on a tool to make that project easier. A work-station, a jig, a library, a pod orchestration framework. Sometimes the new thing you've made will make the target project easier; sometimes you go down a rabbit hole and forget the project you were supposed to be working on as you start designing a new language to write a library in to write a database with that would suit your new project a lot better than SQLite.

Open any wood-working magazine, and half the projects are workbenches and shop organization.

Every time a bell rings, another programmer has written an editor.

I occasionally pick up old hand tools at rummage sales, estate sales, etc. just because I like the look of them, but have found that I enjoy cleaning up and using them too. I have an old cherrywood level that is a decoration in the house, but when I need to hang a shelf or a picture it's very handy to have a perfectly good level hiding in plain sight.

I always thought old hand tools were kind of crap to use though until I cleaned up an old block plane and sharpened the blade. With a sharpened blade it made incredibly satisfying curls of wood on my next woodworking project, where I would have normally used my loud and unpleasant belt sander. I think I get it now why some people really love collecting old tools.