I currently develop for mainframes and I can say they are still very relevant today in multiple industries. For my own company, we get a lot more bang for our buck than if we were constantly worried about the hype cycles.
>if the CTO doesn’t care that he is using somewhat modern technology he should be fired for incompetence
A ridiculous statement. The last concern of the CTO should be "are we using the latest tech for the sake of having the latest tech". Their concerns should be about cost, what the business actually needs, and what the future will entail. Finding new developers isn't that difficult, even for something like mainframes which most college grads today are totally unfamiliar with.
Your point about being more easily hireable by staying up to date with the current hype is true and valid. However the CTO doesn't have the same concerns as you. This is the important difference.
Tell that to all the states struggling to get unemployment benefits out because they can’t find enough COBOL programmers to keep their systems from melting....
>if the CTO doesn’t care that he is using somewhat modern technology he should be fired for incompetence
A ridiculous statement. The last concern of the CTO should be "are we using the latest tech for the sake of having the latest tech". Their concerns should be about cost, what the business actually needs, and what the future will entail. Finding new developers isn't that difficult, even for something like mainframes which most college grads today are totally unfamiliar with.
Your point about being more easily hireable by staying up to date with the current hype is true and valid. However the CTO doesn't have the same concerns as you. This is the important difference.