I wonder what OP has seen to reach these conclusions because this is not my experience. Not even close. What I have experienced in commercial environments: -

I wonder what OP has seen to reach these conclusions because this is not my experience. Not even close. What I have experienced in commercial environments: - Software make/buy decisions are rarely made by programmers, but are made strategically with programmer input. - "Everything else (95%)" can be many things. Sometimes you can plug in standard stuff (utilities, human resources, accounting), often you must write original code to handle your company's proprietary processes. - In theory, existing libraries and frameworks are great. In practice, sometimes they make sense, but just as often they force you into a dead end. It may be tough to code at a low level, but the advantage is that you can almost always do what's needed. - Having source code and being able to do something with it if often a huge competitive advantage. I forget how many times I've witnessed M & A scenarios where the acquirer bought the acquired because the former was able to change their business software on the fly and the latter had an unchangeable package.