Agreed! Astro is fantastic, but the biggest barrier I had in learning it was getting my head around range of terms that developers who entered the workplace after 2010 have invented to describe "how the web works".
We're a growing startup, based out of a real office with air conditioning, carpets and everything, with paying customers and no VC intervention. And we're based out of Newcastle.
Just one data point, granted, but we're not alone.
https://www.webstandards.org/about/index.html