4GB? I wouldn't expect most open world games to perform well with 4GB. I think 2010 was the last time I had a laptop with less than 8GB. My current laptop has 16GB. Game developera and certainly mod developers don't optimize for bargain basement hardware.
Every enterprise client I have worked with has asked about our tech stack. I will agree that your groupon clone users do not care about your stack, but respond to an enterprise SaaS RFP and stack, security, DR will all be discussed.
This is a good problem. The solution is to raise the bar: in order to be a professor you have to make a tangible advancement in your field, something that advances the state of the art by an order of magnitude.
The bit regarding what my young and old compatriots believe based on source of news resonates with me. I generally don't debate with "pre internet" people.