[ghaff]

>It kind of surprises me that software, a creative and digital medium like the above, is not futile and that you can still make a good living at it.

Mostly by writing software for a specific business purpose. There's still money in custom content in most of the other areas you list as well--mostly at the high-end of the scale. You're right that it's increasingly hard to just throw your creations out and hope someone will pay much for them.