Synthesizers in the 70s cost the equivalent of a new car today. In the 80s and 90s, they were out of reach of the majority of creative people, and definitely out of reach of kids. The problem with software instruments today is that their connection to the internet and social media rewards imitation over experimentation. I can assemble a bunch of samples and post it on soundcloud and call it dubstep, and it just creates a landfill of crap to sort through to find anything good. It's cultural noise, it's not signal.

I seriously think the current era of modular synths and analog devices is to quantum computing what radio electronics kits of the 50s and 60s were to the personal computer. We're only a decade or two from a quantum Hewlett-Packard or Woz-Jobs garage-style project. That time goes by very fast.