Excel VBA and legacy business systems and nasty abandoned PHP and shitty Java monoliths are way more common out there than Angular and Node and the like.
"…solved many business problems with languages I didn't previously know, such as Excel VBA" sounds like it would make you a fantastic employee for any number of small businesses out there, the trick will be finding them.
I lucked into my first gig via a short-term contract (through a friend) that turned into full-time employment. The job was a mix of Filemaker (which I'd never touched before) and PHP and weird CSV import/export formats (so, basically the most awful combination of technologies in existence), but I solved real problems and was of real value to my employer. Sounds like you could pretty easily do the same, you just need to look for the opportunities.
The stuff that gets talked about on HN seems to be a weird microcosm of cutting edge tech, too much money, and "we have to convince investors we're worth buying so we have to keep up with all the buzzword tech". Meanwhile the other 99% are just tucked away in small businesses solving boring business problems with boring legacy tech and keeping the world turning.