Really enjoyed this article, I like your writing style.

Re: your pro-specialist argument -

"Specialists cost more because you either need to pay more to hire them, or you need to pay for the time it takes for somebody to become a specialist. But the productivity improvements should more than outweigh the cost."

Here lies the problem. I'm not sure the productivity improvements do outweigh the cost according to the metrics businesses track and care about. the benefit to customer experience or the structural integrity of the software outweighs the cost, but that's not something business leaders are incentivized to care about in a meaningful way.

the market for artisan software is just too small