If Seth activated comments on his blog, I might write something like this on a recent post of his. Instead:
I think it’s helpful to recognize and factor in for scale. Some software dev firms are too small to really have a “human touch” to be of value (I personally don’t think any company would be too small for that, but I don’t determine their business direction, so…). Some apps that people would use are too niche to really warrant the demand for the human side of things. We might just want to use the app and get on with our lives.
The state of the user plays a lot into it, too. To wit: I have a compass and leveler app on my Android. To me, it has usefulness but I don’t see myself investing a lot of capital into the app nor its makers. However, if I were a construction contractor and the devs specialized in, say, apps for carpentry, then their human side would definitely be of interest to me, since they are essentially helping me make a living. The demand for investment is there: I use their apps more than once daily, I have feelers out, are they touching back? Any company that wants to stay in business should be.