Feelings about vintage systems

I've used a lot of different systems, but some stick in my mind as being particularly wonderful and others are but a dim memory. I've used DEC equipment (VAX 730 and 750), but never at an assembly or machine instruction level--there was simply no need. Unix is unix and everything's done in C at worst. So I don't remember much about the hardware and have no particular fondess or aversion to a system--it was just a box. If it broke, you called for field service; the peripherals were likely made by someone else, so even those weren't special. They were like my toaster--they did what they were purchased to do and when they didn't, there was someone who would fix them. Learn the right Unix invocation, know where to plug in the cables; after that, it's just a matter of putting the right software on it. On the other hand, there are many systems that I've programmed at the assembly level and have even developed hardware for that I remember quite well. Some of these were notably inferor to the DEC systems, but they occupy a fond spot in my mind. What I'm wondering is if one's feelings about "collectable" systems have more to do with the level of exposure to the internals of the hardware than with any intrinsic novelty of the hardware itself. Does this make sense? Since fewer folks are using assembly or machine language, does this account for the indifference to modern hardware? Cheers, Chuck