> it's just some code that can be thrown away at any time for something better.

That's exactly what the author is arguing against. Decisions about foundational infrastructure (frameworks, databases, programming languages) have consequences for the organizations that decide to use them. Switching costs can be high. Lock-in of all kinds is real.

> When we list humanities technological inventions a century from now, I don't think we will be listing CockroachDB or similar.

That isn't at all what I or the author of the article was saying.