[Ma8ee]

The whole market was much smaller. So maybe much less competition, but also much less market when only hobyists had computers at home and no one had smartphones.

The only "golden age" I can think of was the internet bubble when investors were crazy and threw money on anything that had anything to do with internet. Some kids made really good money "programming" HTML.

[retsibsi]

Fair points, thanks. (The question was only semi-rhetorical, as I'm only an observer rather than an insider, so I appreciate the genuine answer.)