I've never really heard this from anyone that is actually technical. I think people with actual technical skills and joy would be quite impressed by mainframe

I've never really heard this from anyone that is actually technical. I think people with actual technical skills and joy would be quite impressed by mainframe systems. The issue for management is you can't copy someone else's strategy like hiring random fungible devs so easily, you need to invest in some training and retaining. So if you're a stuffed shirt the easiest thing to do to explain your lack of leadership and foresight is to point to the mysterious system and point to other companies doing (x, y or z) and say you need to be more like them in a copycat way with little consideration for the difficulty or success of the existing business and systems. The evergreening that goes on in tech is extremely low dividend activity for any business but the new employees and new vendors make a lot of money until they too are out fashioned.