I definitely look to see if the wheel is already invented, but I guess I started early enough when there wasn't a lot out there and had to make it work on my own. I totally enjoy having to hack together things and google answers (god, that's gotten a lot harder than it used it be), so that's also part of why I jump to DIY unless I find something that's perfect and already made.

A recent one where I stopped myself was automating backups. I was going to try to throw together something, but then ran across restic and Backrest and wow, it's so much better than what I could have done.

I think there's probably still room creatively, especially as a hobby.

I sort of see it as the opposite with software though, that popular options are bloated data-wise (and cost) and simple usage-wise, other options are small-ish data-wise but less user-friendly. It seems like the middleground (low data+easy-to-use) is less likely to exist, particularly for techniques that aren't as shiny/new. In some cases, it really does seem like certain workflows don't exist. (or perhaps for some things that we've seen before, implementations were always in-house rather than something that existed in a usable editor)

Which isn't to say stuff like that will be easy, maybe doable with limitation and if libraries can take you half-way there.