Yeah, 1972 - "Nord-5 was Norsk Data's first 32-bit machine and was claimed to be the first 32-bit minicomputer".
The Wikipedia record: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord-5
I was a Casio guy, having the fx-850p. It was a very nice object I enjoyed a lot but HP ones had their own touch for sure.
Talking about design, some of the Nintendo Game & Watch series were particularly lovely. It's the first "computer device" I can think of which was elegant.
The advantage of the C64 tape recorder was it reliability and the motor being pilot by the computer. With personal tape recorders there was a lot of problems due to heads miss aligned.
Rick Dickinson, the Sinclair designer guy, was simply a genius. It helped a lot for the success, the ZX81 and the Spectrum being just beautiful objects.
On a side note, I think one of the most iconic manual cover for a computer is the ZX81 one. Designed by John Harris, it's a masterpiece. I think he designed the Spectrum manual too but it was not so great.
We had beautiful computers at the time. I would say, in order of appearance, the Atari VCS, the ZX81, the Spectrum, the Commodore C128 and the Amiga 500 (inspired by the C128), the Apple IIc Plus. The original Macintosh eventually. It was just like having a piece of art at home.
The Spectrum Next, still designed by Rick, is beautiful too.
I agree for an ideal world but the problem is often the wall of the reality i.e. TIME. Levelling the playing field takes time and it's not doable when you have to deliver now, not in a month. So playing at a level sustainable by everyone on the long run is certainly a better and more robust approach.
Are you sure those "smartest developers" would be still smart if they have to maintain someone else abstract code? Easy to memorize layers of abstraction when it follow your own logic and you build it step by step.