This game doesn’t try to do anything unique as far as I can tell and has no reason to exist.
This game exists as a point of reference for the developer to compare back to once they’ve progressed in their career; it’s meant to be practice to learn from.
I think calling this “cargo culting successful developers or just doing this for the sake of a Youtube video” is really going too far and reading into it too much. It’s like seeing someone going to the gym and being like “if you cant even lift this then what’s the point”