I especially agree with your last note. Again, I’m young, but it seems to me that the shortcomings of humans have a largely homogenous distribution through time and space.
I was born in 1991 so a lot of my understanding/worldview of this era is synthesized from hopefully-representative anecdata. Also, learning difficulties (gross oversimplification, and not realizing I'm misinterpreting something incorrectly) add extra spin to some of my earlier models that I also have to correct for (and in some cases notice in the first place).
Haha, how wrong am I? "You're sorta heading in the right direction, if you squint right, but missing 99% of nuance/context"? Or "the turnoff for the correct forest was 50 miles back"? :)
If you have any suggestions for good references I could absorb that will (misinterpretation notwithstanding) present a decent capture of the nuance of 40 years ago, I'd love to hear it.
I think it's mostly because the Jargon File, BOFH stories, and similar lore only pick the interesting parts...and let's face it, parts that make the sysop narrator look good (as opposed to the "suit" antagonists).
Of course it is described as The Golden Age, because that's how all the stories of any golden age are curated.