Hammers and word processors have a much lesser legacy impact upon building and writing than software does upon making web sites and applications. If you choose wrong with the former, you can very easily change your mind and avoid having to redo anything. The same is definitely not true of the latter.

There is a continuum between a basic tool and a medium. Hammers and word processors are basic tools. The basic tool of hacking is the word processor. A piece of software, or programming language, is much further along that continuum. A better simile for software and websites might be, "I want to construct a place for people to live. What kind of building should I design?"