[contingencies]

That hardware outlook would have been rational in those days. The popularization of computing was a double-edged sword and commerce corrupted efficiency. It's no good selling people reliable PCs with easily replaceable parts if you want to make money on hardware and software. Today in a triumph of marketing and needless consumption people buy laptops for no apparent reason plus phones more powerful than their old laptops and PCs are becoming edge-cases. Each OS release refuses to work on older hardware. Even Linux drops support. On PCs you can plug in extra processors but only your modern-day prototypers/prototypists (software developers), oddballs like film post processing houses, scientists and gamers tend to bother. It's reaching the point even screens can barely be purchased without corrupting advertisements, internet connections and spyware.

Can't say I follow your whole line of reasoning but I agree the faddishness of, say, frontend environments does favor a, say, LISP implementation with code generation to exploit the next app-market with rejigs of yesteryears' algorithms. Classic games, utilities, etc. Just a new target layer and profit. Let the deployment environment evolve and invest in something abstract enough for inherent stability.

Some of the better facets of today's environment are popular enthusiasm for technology, easy and fast connectivity, and nominal availability of funding. I agree that systems thinking tends to be learned through implementation and maintenance, not taught.

Speaking of drinks, I need a drink: for tomorrow I am scaling a drink dispenser.