In my view, it depends on what you get your pleasure from. Taking something from model to metal invokes a certain crazy satisfaction that's hard to describe. I've built things that didn't really need to be built, for this reason.
You can still do it old-style with no custom-made PC boards ... I actually have quite a few protoboards made with a wiring pencil. No CPU/computer though. Most complex thing is probably a serial-to-NATO (alphabet/language) board :)
