[kbr2000]

It seems more likely to me that those "devops tools" only solve a small slice of the big sysadmin cheese, and not in a flexible way (one useful skill of sysadmins is being able to react on the spot to what's coming to them at that moment, using basic tools and logical reasoning, much like a firefighter).

Being able to differentiate between what's worth to automate and what is not is another one of those useful skills. Knowing a scripting language to glue those basic tools together is too. Being proactive (assisted by monitoring software and knowledge of the underlying systems so you can tell what consequences some event have) is another...

None of that is new nor surprising to sysadmins. It might sound fresh to others, being trapped to reinvent a small slice of it (badly). Also, "devops" is just another funky management fad by now.