I somehow agree with this "if your client-side MVC framework does not support server-side rendering, that is a bug. It cripples performance." and it always felt right.
I would straight forward look for skillsets and productivity(productivity includes guys availability i.e. whatever is needed) and attitude rather than age, Period.
My intention was not to sound like rant but if I did then it's my bad. I notice the issues with ubuntu a lot and I was big fan of it as mentioned above but not anymore as you know the reason. I get paid for developing application which work on browsers and not make browsers work fast. The point is big number of devs won't be able to give their time to make browsers better but that does not mean they can't say bad is bad.
I think you have already mentioned the pros and cons here and you are very much right. I am a bit lazy developer and hate doing the same things again and again knowing the fact that the process can be automated. Though believe in sharing knowledge. The first thing is your tool must serve well to your need. Making the tool generic enough is later part of the story.
I would prefer to write scripts that are useful rather than wasting time, it does not matter if it just suits my requirement.
As quoted by "David Clayworth" that programmers tend to loose the interest after solving the problem in hand. It happens with me a lot of time.
However, I tend to write the comment and function signature when planning a solution to a bigger problem. In comment I mostly add what I want to achieve from the function or code block. There are more chances of putting a comment while developing a new feature from scratch.
I have seen people taking the 3rd point lightly, atleast by techies in majority. They think revenue model will evolve once the product idea they love becomes reality.