> because that apparently was beyond his competence.

This has almost nothing to do with nature (barring a development issue).

This has to do with nurture. Every time they went to do something with a tool a helicopter gunship of a parent showed up to tell them no. Now they have a learned helplessness when it comes to these things.

But that's not really any different then when I was a kid so very long ago. At 4 or 5 I was given a stack of old broken radios and took them to the garage for a rip and tear session. I got to look at all their pretty electronic guts that fascinated me. There were plenty of other parents of that time that would have been horrified to see their kids do something similar.