I don't think it's so much that it requires an interest in academia, but that it requires a shift in thinking towards abstractions that still aren't mainstream,

I don't think it's so much that it requires an interest in academia, but that it requires a shift in thinking towards abstractions that still aren't mainstream, relative to OOP (in its various forms) and unadorned events/listeners. Principally, that shift is toward higher-order functions. Yes, those same HOF abstractions are popular subjects for academic research and teaching, but they're not inherently academic subjects.