I was struck by this as people suggest alternatives that refute the headline (QGIS, PostGIS, GDAL, etc): nearly every one emerged in the early 2000s.

Strongly agree with your sentiment around maps: most people can’t read them, they color the entire workflow and make it more complex, and (imo) lead to a general undervaluing of the geospatial field. Getting the data into columns means it’s usable by every department.