Ah, brings back memories of being a Silicon Graphics Customer Support Engineer based in London and the Home Counties, back in the late 90's and early 2000's.
Indy, Indigo, then later the Octanes, and others I can't quite remember the name of off-hand.
The video post-production companies in SOHO - I saw the CGI being rendered for Event Horizon...
The "IBM Stiction Problem" as it was called. Batches of IBM hard drives that worked fine for months - right up until the machines were powered off - which then entailed an on-site visit. The stifled gasp from the customer as I remove the old drive and give it a stern tap on the desk, to get it unstuck so I could clone it to the replacement. ;)
Enjoyed that job immensely, except for the driving around London bit.
I agree with what you say. I've witnessed more than enough software with absolutely abysmal UI/UX and don't have time for that myself - except for when I really need to, like this one truly abysmal phone app for an energy company which I need to use to pay for my energy.
It looks and acts like it was designed/coded by idiots; additional popups to remind me to rate the app (already did and it was very negative!), a popup with an "okay, got it" prompt - the only prompt - which instead of setting that yes, I actually did get it, just pops up again the next time reminding me to use some feature I don't want to use.
And so on.
That's obviously the fault of the people involved in vomiting out the abysmal application(s).
But yes I agree, most people simply don't care about the technology, they just want a Thing to do the thing they want it to do, no muss no fuss. This situation has always been the case and I can't envisage a time when it will change.
This born in '69 53 year old right here is programming backends and frontends for websites, and PySide5/6 Qt5/6 applications.
I'm still sharp as a pin.
Like you say, there has to be some point at which those younger than I stop thinking someone in their 50's isn't as hopeless with technology as they assume.
Of course not everyone in my Gen X'er group will be like me, then again, I know of folks in their 20's who struggle with anything IT.
narrator> And that's when he discovers his account has now been hacked...
;)