I'd argue that this hobby computer culture is still alive in well, but in a different form: the large number of vintage computing hobbyist groups that work to restore, understand, and make new hardware for the simplistic systems that formed the early days of computing. They enjoy the same optimism that drove the early hobby culture, but from a different vantage point - one of research and understanding - but the enjoyment and excitement are still there.
There's enjoyment and excitement, but rather than the optimism of an unbounded future of unimaginable wonders, in my experience they're animated by a profound pessimism about the current state of computing and where it's going.
