Mainstream stuff isn't necessarily the best, but it's "good enough". The big benefit isn't the product itself, but a market effect: multiple third-party add-ons

Mainstream stuff isn't necessarily the best, but it's "good enough". The big benefit isn't the product itself, but a market effect: multiple third-party add-ons and service will be available. Bugs and gaps will have been found and gaffa taped. A large skilled employee pool, commodity-priced. Basically, "if we all make the same mistake, it will be worth someone's while to take care of us" (baby boomer effect). This is what makes established products unreasonably difficult to dislodge (from a technical perspective). At the other end of the capability spectrum, Alan Kay said there's an exception to the rule to reuse not reinvent: those who can make their own tools should.