"Do programmers really find so much fun in creating accidental complexity?"
I certainly did for a number of years - I just had the luck that the cool things I happened to pick on in the early/mid 1990s turned out to be quite important (Web '92, Java '94).
Now my views have flipped almost completely the other way - technology as a means of delivering value.
Edit: Other cool technology that I loved like Common Lisp & CLOS, NeWS and PostScript turned out to be less useful...
I see what you mean, sometimes "accidental complexity" can also be a form of getting to know a technology really well and that can be useful and still fun. Kudos for that :)
I certainly did for a number of years - I just had the luck that the cool things I happened to pick on in the early/mid 1990s turned out to be quite important (Web '92, Java '94).
Now my views have flipped almost completely the other way - technology as a means of delivering value.
Edit: Other cool technology that I loved like Common Lisp & CLOS, NeWS and PostScript turned out to be less useful...