I don't understand -- you can purchase your own router instead of renting one from your ISP, which usually works out cheaper in the end too, and port forward.

NAT was a necessity when it was being introduced, so I don't understand the complaints. Sure it's annoying, but what was the alternative?

I don't think anyone was dissuaded from IT because of NAT. Heck, if anything, learning how to configure it might have been some people's first step into learning about networking and then getting into it as a career!

And let's not forget that NAT served as a default firewall that did more than any anti-virus to protect PC's from malware.