Yes I think you are right LeeD. I guess there could be some advantages for several users in using a platform which provide a good infrastructure. After all, there are several programs which work about like that and are widely used (<b>if the users are profitable is another matter</b>). As personal preference (I imagine it could be the same for anyone who knows how to code) creating the infrastructure is not an effort barely comparable with that of creating profitable strategies. So there is more than plenty of time to refine the platform while working on strategic concepts. This is also the reason why you see such beautifully looking plarforms, which the creators could not make profitable, and had to "shift" the business on program selling instead of making profits from trading.
If one has a profitable platform, he would just trade or readily find investors to trade, and not make a commercial effort to sell the program itself.
About the second part, I think i will leave that to be a little "mystery" ;-) Engaging in that discussion would surely start a big epic war on the conceptual aspects of trading
I don't really have interest most people change their coding languages, nor their approach to trading ;-)
Tom