I read essays from 40 years ago, about what the office of the future could and should look like.

There always seemed to be an assumption that you would empower the user with tools.

I suppose VBA does that to an extent, but it seems like we haven't moved the idea forward in 30 years.

I'd like to say it's because it's 'good enough', I suspect it's more a hold over from an earlier time that hasn't been eradicated yet.