I think the reality is that "if you build it they will come" is simply not always true, and worse is sometimes better. I don't think we are climbing to an optim

I think the reality is that "if you build it they will come" is simply not always true, and worse is sometimes better. I don't think we are climbing to an optimum, at least unless it is culturally perceived that good abstractions are more valuable than just generating code. The auto-renderers did actually win. There were GUI building tools at the end of 90s (like Visual Basic) that still put most web frameworks to shame. But, for various business reasons (mostly pricing, really) they were replaced with "web technology" - something open source but worse. (And I am not dissing OSS, either. For example, Qt/KDE had some great abstractions that could serve as a basis for building applications. But the urge to reinvent the wheel has won.)