Just reading this thread following my weekly email from the forum.
My two cents is that there are two basic camps of model railroaders. One camp just wants things to work and does not care about the how or why. The other camp derives enjoyment (at times painful) from understanding the how and why and dealing with all the intricacies, whether they be electrical, mechanical, or digital.
I liken this to the use of gauges in an automobile verses indicator ( a.k.a. idiot ) lights. I don't say this as a derogatory comment. In some ways, I wish I was never cursed with the engineer's mentality. Ignorance can be bliss.
I dabbled in hand assembly of assembler code and am quite comfortable of working at the register level of zeros and ones. Same goes for electrical a, electronics and mechanical.
I do believe that there needs to be a easier user interface put in front of DCC if DCC is to survive. I have not made the switch to battery but for many reasons I think it will allow the overall hobby to survive. In addition to battery, using wireless control, whether RF or WiFi will be the future.
I posted some work I had done awhile back using C/C++ and the ESP8266 for control. The ESP8266 has penetrated the world in home appliances, sensors, toys, cameras, gas grills, garage door openers, and more. It is the backbone of IOT. I believe it is only a matter of time before it or something similar (ESP32) is introduced to model trains.