If it were still that way today, most of the startups that this site revolves around wouldn't exist.
In what way? The startups wouldn't exist because the founders can't handle the tools? Or, are you saying they wouldn't exist because there wouldn't be huge markets of people sharing cats pictures.
The more I think about it, both cases could both be correct, seeing how many people who call themselves developers would find it impossible to write a line of code if they didn't have eclipse....