Has a lot of old school hot rodding been lost?

A lot of old hot rodders have gone yes; but I think there is still plenty of "new old hotrodders" hell I hand ported my intake while it was still on the car with a set of hand files my grandfather used for woodworking. probably 90 year old files. My buddy gary told me how to round off the tips on my spark plug electrode to reduce hotspots. there is still plenty around but I think we can all agree that instead of hand filing an intake spending 100 bucks at a swapmeet on an edelbrock one is easier and not much hot rodding ingenuity is involved.

hell the pistons and rods I bought have been modified to handle 9000rpm. the hours gone into those (at a machine shop) is likely more expensive than buying h-beam rods.

its probably just me but I prefer doing things with no money because it forces me to use my brain to achieve the same result as the guy who throws money at something to make it fast.