This used to be one of the great ways that tech was different. You didn't have to convince people through social means. Often there were purely technical merits

This used to be one of the great ways that tech was different. You didn't have to convince people through social means. Often there were purely technical merits that could be objectively proven. And people cared about the code more than "being right." Obviously that's not a blanket statement, but it did used to feel representative of the overall culture. Over the years we've backed away from considering the value of things on their technical merits. I'm not saying we shouldn't be thinking of business value, but you have to admit that's far more subjective. I'm not always sure it's a good thing. I'm convinced that maximizing business value and ignoring technical value is one of the main reasons so much modern software is crap.