I really like this anecdote, and I very much think you're speaking for a lot of people here. Tech is tooling. Some people make a hobby out of the tooling, others merely use the tools to build something.

It's totally valid to make a hobby out of tools (e.g. motorcycles), but it's easy to end up with all sorts of highfalutin' opinions about how the tools must or must not be used, that hinge on minute distinctions that fundamentally don't matter to someone looking to merely use them as tools.