I'd say this reflects how problems in the physical world are hard in general. The robotics industry does have common platforms in the form of robotic arms used

I'd say this reflects how problems in the physical world are hard in general. The robotics industry does have common platforms in the form of robotic arms used in automotive manufacturing. But they take away all the messiness and noise of the physical world by locking humans away and only allowing the arms to manipulate carefully designed prefab components. It's a similar situation in the world of computing because our silicon chips don't make full use of the analog design space. Rather, they stick to digital circuits with clearly defined voltage levels and clocking margins. By not pushing silicon design to its absolute limits and sticking with artificial restrictions that improve reliability, computer programmers don't have to worry about analog voltage drops across the chip and focus only on ones and zeros. Creating this same artificial environment for robots would involve turning the messy world we live in into a factory floor.