Your original argument was that the ease of dependency management doesn't change programming or the act of programming. I feel it encourages a compartmentalized

Your original argument was that the ease of dependency management doesn't change programming or the act of programming. I feel it encourages a compartmentalized approach to writing programs, pulling in dependencies as needed rather than relying on a giant library like Boost. Thus it does actually change the "act of programming", which is a vague term that can mean anything. This is not mentioning all the upsides of having a easy build system from easy learning and community standpoints.