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For me, things like the Altair, the Apple IIe and the Arduino were not what they could functionally do for my data or make "my life easier" ... it was what it did to me, personally.

I learned programming and it fundamentally changed my brain: I could issue commands programatically to a piece of hardware and it will do what I tell it to (to a fault).

The point of the Arduino (as seen in modern times) is to change a person's brain in fundamental ways about what computers, hardware and software are, how they interact and what they can do with it. It expands their minds and shows them possibilities and understanding not seen when one just views a piece of hardware as some mysterious entity.

As for what the Arduino can do for this end, it requires a community of dedicated and enthusiastic users as well as hardware and a (software) programmer. A group of people with a diverse set of interests, experiences and educations (artists to engineers and everything in between), the aim of ease-of-use, learning and understanding is required for this kind of excitement and interest.

There was a similar group for PCs but I found my community with the Apple IIe and LOGO for that was what the local user groups were using and what my middle school teacher taught me. Now, the "local" user group is the entire internet. Had I gone to a different school maybe there would have been an assembly community.