>> "It only takes 23 years to forget history."

I dont think this means people have forgot history, rather, I think people make tradeoffs. You trade off size/space/ease for long-term disruption. Most developers making these decisions now will be close to a 100yo in 2199. It will not be their problem, or even their childrens' problem. Possibly their grand-children's problem.

Alternatively, I could argue that the life of most systems is short enough that 80yrs is too long a horizon to worry about the problem.