It is probably due to the age demographics. People who are nostalgic for those years of the microcomputer revolution are both (1) relative large in numbers comp

It is probably due to the age demographics. People who are nostalgic for those years of the microcomputer revolution are both (1) relative large in numbers compared to earlier people in computing and (2) still relatively young and active. Many will be going into retirement about now also. Then there is the practicality. The machines from that era were small. If you get your hands on the actual hardware, you can have it at home, set up in a small nook somewhere. Not so easy with some IBM 709 or something. The stuff is easy to work on, and many components are still easily available.