I think the language you use there actually answers your question better than I ever could — mastery over complexity is something that brings great joy and pleasure in people’s hobbies or in learning gaming, but it doesn’t generally bring great pleasure when you have limited time, limited available brain-power or you’re under pressure or stressed.

Some systems are clearly designed to be understood and interrogated and explored and played with — others are designed to speed up, optimize and clarify, with the view that this frees up mental effort to spend on more interesting, entertaining or creative problems.

The argument I guess I’m making in this piece is that there is a complexity here that most people do not find enjoyable because they’re more focused on the ends of the process. They’d rather spend their time reading novels, or playing with some electronics, or doing up the bathroom, or watching TV or hanging out with friends, or getting in arguments on the internet. They want their environment to just work.

Effectively a hobby is something that you choose to do, and many people would not choose to understand network dynamics and the way smart devices fit together.