Here is the thing about hardware vs software.

For the same mental effort, you get orders of magnitude more "end product" from software than hardware, with greatly less overhead and greatly more flexibility.

Hardware is extremely punishing and "complexity friction" kicks in almost immediately. A multi-feature door alarm on a microcontroller is a one hour affair that a newbie could finagle. With a pure hardware implementation its a multi-day effort, plus another day of reworking the board to dial it in. And if you aren't copying a design, you likely need a degree as well.

There is also the fact that software pays much more than hardware, can be done remotely from just about anywhere, doesn't involve working in labs full of lead and solvents, and like the author noted, has a much higher "wow!" factor from people in general. Software makes you feel very powerful, hardware will humble you into the ground.