What's Newton's modern equivalent doing right now? Probably perfecting a build order in Stellaris.
I also don't buy into the idea that if these games didn't exist, those types of people would instead be naturally spending all their time tinkering on things that would drive scientific and engineering progress.
On the other hand, what does the non-tinkerer majority of humanity do to deserve the tinkerers inventing things for them instead of spending their time upon personal happiness? ;)
Is it the usage of inventions to exploit, rob and kill each other which makes humanity worthy of getting more science? Certainly not :)
To be more specific:
I've seen the Internet before the tinkerers developed sufficient usability so the "normies" could use it. What it has become now that they're here is an abomination. HN is like a nuclear shelter, except outside its not radioactive but a giant, never-ending shitstorm.
So I often wonder: Should I really try to make my software accessible to the average person? So that they can go there and use it to propagate racism and other garbage? Or rather keep it difficult to use and play Factorio or whatever instead?
Tough decision to make for sure.
Most people like this have jobs that they dedicate 30-60 hours a week to building things. Presumably, that's what Newton would also be doing today: working in the day and finding time to build sundials in Valheim at night.
Of course, it's possible he'd end up being a Twitch streamer or something.
My favorite unrealistic and whimsical solution to the pandemic is for the government to buy everyone a copy of Factorio (maybe a laptop too if they don't have one) and have vaccine eligibility order determined by how fast you launch a rocket. The entire country has a momentary national obsession with non-deadlocking rail systems, and in a couple weeks the pandemic is over because no one has left their house in that time.
I do think Factorio is a good tool for understanding and appreciating supply chains and logistics. It's amazing to me that there are real-world factories producing real-world complex products like cars, and the whole process is far more complex than some optimized rocket control module production setup in Factorio. It's something most people just don't interact with, except as a consumer of the final product or maybe they have a job contributing to some tiny part of the entire production system.