You'll probably get downvoted for mentioning this, but capitalism is a big factor here. It's not so much about selling books and farming engagement. It's about

You'll probably get downvoted for mentioning this, but capitalism is a big factor here. It's not so much about selling books and farming engagement. It's about commodification of labor. The "best practices" tend to cater to the lowest common denominator to get at least something done. This lowers bargaining power of labor, drives down wages and increases capital's share of the pie. This is inevitable in capitalism. Happens to all crafts. This is why we can have cheap crap but not nice things.