You know, it's an interesting in point.
I know a few people who write the most atrocious code imaginable, simply because they are spoiled by the performance of their hardware. People who should not be let anywhere near a compiler, for that matter. Their only skill is in the application of brute force to solve any problem. Then they use some convenience-oriented, high-level language/design tools with which to write their ill thought out code.
I worry that the arts of problem analysis, algorithm design and implementation efficiency are fast dying.