When I was growing up, we had operating systems that exposed a lot of the technical details about their inner workings, and websites that let us use code to customize them, like MySpace and Geocities....
The core problem is the commercialization of it all. Companies started wanting to sell computers and software (and show ads) to people who don't want to put in any effort to educate themselves how to use these technologies. This is how we got this relentless simplification.
Except some people just don't want tech anyway. I have an elderly relative who is essentially forced by the society to have a smartphone. It's quite predictable that she would sometimes ask me "Grisha, why is it not working well, can you take a look" and I'll see all kinds of nasty bloatware and adware she inadvertently installed. It happened on several occasions. I was able to put an end to this by setting up system-wide ad blocking via DNS like I do on my own devices.
This is what convinced me that the society needs to change to make the use of tech a choice, not a burden.
Except some people just don't want tech anyway. I have an elderly relative who is essentially forced by the society to have a smartphone. It's quite predictable that she would sometimes ask me "Grisha, why is it not working well, can you take a look" and I'll see all kinds of nasty bloatware and adware she inadvertently installed. It happened on several occasions. I was able to put an end to this by setting up system-wide ad blocking via DNS like I do on my own devices.
This is what convinced me that the society needs to change to make the use of tech a choice, not a burden.