This doesn't happen just in the backend. It happens even with FE frameworks. How many people have a use case for react or other jazzy frameworks?
A crude example I can give you is, this is like developing all your applications in awk or sed because that's fashionable currently. You are shoe horning your problems into solutions paradigms they don't belong to.
Programmers have a tendency to detach themsleves from the business where software is there to maximize the profit. It doesn't matter whether it's written in PHP, Ruby, or [language of the year] [0]. But if you let the programmers go wild, many of them have a tendency to pick the hottest thing just because [some reason that has no advantage from business POV]. I guess that's the sign of boredom.
Programming is fun, playing with new toys is fun, but it should not be forgotten that it's part of the business.
[0] Well, it sort of matters. Dev time costs money, good tools and languages will make you write it faster therefore maximizing money. But that's not what I am talking about here.
I mean , is it feasible for the ordinary developer to engage in a multi-year risky R&D project that might ultimately fail resulting in nothing ?
Most people barely have any time to code. It's just because Github is your Resume (TM) that makes most people crank out their own Javascript framework so they can have it on their resume.
Could you give any examples of any such long term one man personal R&D efforts ?