Yeah, since 2007 when I was initially thinking about this, things have moved for the better. I do mention Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress in the video itself. But in 2007 it looked quite grim to me (no AppStore, no GOG, hardly the diversity you can find today on Steam). The last Tycoon game I played at the time was The Movies (an amazing game thankfully) and there was not even a (good) SimCity game to look forward to. Spore was the only AAA creative title I played since then, all the rest (Mincraft, DF) came from indie developers. It's a start, but apart from iOS Tycoon games, which are probably on the same cloning/theme-changing selfdestruction path of late PC Tycoons, still there's not as diverse offering as in the 90s:
- building a Rube Goldberg machine (The Incredible Machine series)
- racing on tracks created by yourself (Stunts)
- building a vast transport system (Transport Tycoon)
- building a city (SimCity series)
- running a car factory (Detroit)
- building roman cities (Caesar series)
- building real estate with competing firms (Constructors)
- becoming an ant! (SimAnt)
- building a skyscraper (SimTower)
- building railroads (Railroad Tycoon)
- building a pizza restaurant and designing pizzas (Pizza Tycoon)
- running a business (Free Enterprise)
- settling on new land (Settlers series)
And your argument about technology just makes me wonder - if all these games could be made back then - imagine what developers with a bit of ingenuity and love for innovation & creativity could come up with today.