Have you considered that people do things for fun? They may not care about some abstract concept of "success"? Maybe writing their own DE is exactly the "succes

Have you considered that people do things for fun? They may not care about some abstract concept of "success"? Maybe writing their own DE is exactly the "success" they wanted. Also, being a cog in a wheel does nothing but perpetuate the wheel. If the wheel has a flat tire, or the wheel isn't round, or the wheel is going in the wrong direction, then being a cog provides no benefit to anyone.