> Humans also love their tools. While tools get more advanced, they sometimes lose some charm or benefits of older tools.
This is true. In summer when I sit in the dark with the windows open (hot country and no AC and I don't want to attract bugs), my 4K computer monitor is totally incapable of dimming to a level that doesn't blind me. Even with white on black/dark mode and brightness set to 0. In fact, even during the day I work with brightness 0 on that thing, it seems all monitors are optimised for max brightness these days.
Meanwhile, my old VT520 terminal has an analog brightness dial which I can turn so low that I can barely make out the letters in a pitch-black room <3
For me, an interest in retro tech is seeing how people did things in the past and realizing we lost some "nice" experiences along the way.
Also, in a world where everything becomes obsolete at record speeds, something so obsolete feels stuck in time.