> Almost every practical problem today is better solved by something else.

I'm curious about this claim. It's certainly easier to just wire up a modern microcontroller, but is there a better option that involves no software and is likely to still work the same today as it did 50 years ago?

I find it much easier to write a ten line program for an 8 pin CH32V003 (or ATTiny85 in past times) to do exactly the timing or SDC comparisons I want than to figure out the circuit and component values for a 555 or op-amp.

For that matter, a 16 pin CH32V003 can emulate a vast array of 7400 series devices as long as you don't need ns timing — no problem for µs. It's also cheaper.