:) I also did a lot of Max/MSP and many similar systems, [nord modular](http://nmedit.sourceforge.net/) , and also wrote such tools back then, for audio and 3d and video, which is what led to statebox ultimately.
I would say the spaghetti aspect of max is the main complaint with visual programming.
To modularise it (small diagrams), you need to contain the behaviour of the boxes (ie. typed purely functional code).
And to generalise it (audio, video, microservices, ...) you need to separate the syntax from the semantics.
(took me about 15yrs to figure out a way to do this properly :-)
I would say the spaghetti aspect of max is the main complaint with visual programming.
To modularise it (small diagrams), you need to contain the behaviour of the boxes (ie. typed purely functional code).
And to generalise it (audio, video, microservices, ...) you need to separate the syntax from the semantics.
(took me about 15yrs to figure out a way to do this properly :-)