Totally agree. I developed my own code for semiconductor characterization of certain products, evolved a version of that into a mfg test system for tests that (at that time) could not be performed by vendor ATE. We had my system/software at multiple mfg sites around the world operating for about 10 years until ATE was able to perform those same tests. THAT was a fun project early in my career. I worked with MATLAB in its earlier days, big, clunky and slow. I hated it. Fine for bench work but that was about it. It may have evolved into a much more refined product by now, idk. The semi company I worked for had our own in house developed statistical software built on  the Unix platform that was among the best I've ever seen. Diced and sliced gigabytes of data in under a second. Beautiful tool. There was a small group that developed/supported it through its evolution and they were incredibly helpful when you requested a new feature. Oh, I miss those days. Retirement isn't always what it's cracked up to be.