Having a lay-accessible domain that rewards tinkering and provides a path into a related professional domain is to a large extent an artifact of an immature technology. That was a confluence of factors at a place in time, not a natural link between youth and coding.
The web is more mature now for better and for worse. Professionally made commercial platforms are plentiful and varied and likely to meet most users needs. Barriers to entry are also higher for related reasons.
It's probably disappointing to see the path so many of us took closing up behind us, but to some extent is a normal process for a maturing profession. There aren't really accessible DIY paths to auto mechanic, aviator, architect, or lawyer either, though there once were.
We're not fully there yet, and the low startup costs of code will always probably leave a little more room in programming than in other fields for dedicated amateurs. But still, it's not inevitable that this exists, nor is it an anomalous failure if it doesn't.