At this point I think "build a better mouse trap" is the best avenue for me to get anything accomplished. After all, if everyone followed the motto of "don't invent something that's already solved" we wouldn't have:
>React (replaced Angular, Backbone, Ember, etc) >Redux (replaced Flux) >jQuery (replaced Prototype, MooTools) >Facebook (replaced MySpace) >Google (replaced Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Altavista, etc)
The list goes on and on. I didn't see an existing library as a reason to throw away both a learning opportunity and a fun project.
One thing a developer could do instead of reinventing the wheel is to contribute to open source projects that need help.
Yet, creating a library from the ground up by oneself has its own merits in terms of identifying holes in your process and learning new skills