I think the issue in this whole thread is that a lot of the people commenting on the benefits and merits of SMD development are failing to see the reality that

I think the issue in this whole thread is that a lot of the people commenting on the benefits and merits of SMD development are failing to see the reality that the $6 for a board or $40 for a temperature controlled soldering iron are actually too much money in far too many parts of the world. Sure as professionals you might work with $20K oscilloscopes and relatively speaking spending less than $100 on a basic SMD soldering station is peanuts, but we need to appreciate this is simply not the reality for a lot of the world out there. This has nothing to do with the technical merits of SMD or how easy/hard it is to solder versus through-hole. For a lot of kids and makers in developing countries dip packages and veroboard are the only economically feasible gateway to start to make electronics. I don't understand why everybody is struggling to accept this. Perhaps it is just a failure to appreciate the economic lottery of where in the world we are born. To me it is sad that there are kids out there who would stop their curiousity just because of economic barriers, I hope AVR's dip packages continue to be produced for a long time to come.