Engineering Requires Access to Code and Designs
THE simple observation that in order to learn one must be able to access underlying designs (and maybe modify them) isn't so obvious to some. We're meant to become "consumers" (e.g. of APIs) even as developers because large companies would rather we build around their proprietary fortresses (e.g. "services" and "clown computing") instead of developing our own. How many so-called "apps" just simply utilise or leverage Google Maps? How many "apps" boil down to some bloated frameworks? Sadly, a lot of sites have become the same, they're basically proprietary applications written in JavaScript and many communicate with "third parties".
This is a recipe for societal calamity. Especially when society becomes increasingly dependent on a digitalisation "cult" (digitalisation itself isn't sinister, but the trends adopted are).
Imagine what GNU/Linux would look like if it had to contact Microsoft and ask if it's "safe" to boot. Can you imagine that? Oh, wait, they've already conned us into that [1, 2] and they want to trick us some more into similar self-harming traps. █