"Why would you make your own when you can just get one for like $30 online?"

One of the single most disheartening things I've heard from a peer.

Seriously, are you really so incompetent and dependent upon other people's work that you can't even come up with a single reason why I would do this?! Don't you dare try to call yourself an engineer. Call yourself a cheat, cause that's the only way you passed that class.

Even after explaining that making it yourself is one of the best ways to learn about/understand it, they still couldn't understand.

Its all about motivation, some only care for the goal other for the journey and som for both.

Many times, as you say, the journey is where you learn new things while the goal is what pays the bills (unless your on vacation, then the goal generates bills)

Only going for the goal can be best in the short run, and only caring for the journey means you never ever finish, but in the long run, caring for both will probably be best.

Of cause, if time is of the essence and spinning your own takes more time then you might have to compromise and some things are so much work that unless its your main product its not worth the effort to do it your self.

For example, building your own smtp server is fun but way to much work unless you plan to release it as a product ;)

Cause you are not a businessman... Someone has to pay your wages and they just want an end product yesterday. Why pay you a day to reinvent the wheel.

If the time to build takes longer then the amount of paid hours translated from what it costs, then it's not worth building.

That only applies for one-fee-solutions ofc