You sure of that? All the new electrical engineers I know (quite a few) hold a ton of respect for all the crazy things that were done with vacuum tubes back in the old days. The mechanical engineers (of which I am one) all love the old mechanical computers. Just because the new stuff is newer doesn't make the old stuff quaint or simple, in fact, most of the advances we have have made our jobs easier (and all of us less badass engineers). Those guys were taking on unbelievable problems with green CRTs, slide rules, and drafting tables.

The fact that those things exist, let alone work, should leave you slack-jawed.

It only looks like hammered dog meat if you don't know what you're looking at. I'm sure all the engineers that see the stuff are both amazed by the audacity of most of these designs and by the fact that they ever even approached the reliability they have with such complexity. On the other hand, I'm sure most of the same engineers have gripes about almost all of the design details.

You've still got to admire the complete absurdity of such machines though.