You're right, I guess I'm comparing against both those axes at the same time, since I'm relating to my own experience as a kid 30 years ago vs as someone working in tech today. Indeed, that's not really a fair comparison.

The point I was trying to make was about the distinction between programming with a limited set of building blocks vs programming with a large and open-ended selection of libraries. They don't require the same skill set, and one seems more fun to me than the other.