>As a kid I could fiddle with config.sys (or rather autoexec.bat) while nowadays wrestling a file path out of my phone is a battle and the system files of my phone are kept from me.

I think the magic happens at different levels of abstraction as time goes by, and it's easy to get stuck.

Us kids could fiddle with autoexec and config to get DOOM going, today's kids can fiddle with a yaml and have a MMORPG that handles 10 000 users from all over the world going.

It's not the same but I can easily imagine it feeling at least equally magical for a kid today.