what do you guys think

true.

If you look at what software could do on a 286 with 12mhz compared, and you reflect it to nowadays with 8x1.2ghz for example, the result should be at least 800x as impressive. sadly, many layers of abstraction made most developers (including myself) lazier.
so yeah, it made programming easier, at the cost of precious CPU cycles.

props out to the demo scene, who still manage to baffle me with their mind-blowing 4k wizardry. (as in a 4 kilobyte executable)

@kanduvisla true, but the added layers of abstraction not only broadened the software developer base but it also allowed it to fragment into specific sectors.

If we think about time to market only, this was important because it allowed some software developers to focus on the end product instead of having to worry about mathematical/logical/computational/... problems.

Economically speaking, division of labor is one of mankind's greatest achievements.