Simulation worldviews - so what?

The simulation pioneers had no choice but to write code if they wished to conduct a computer simulation. Hence the early interest in simulation worldviews, which allowed an application model to be separated from a simulation engine. Nowadays, few simulations are developed this way and few students are taught the various simulation world-views, though they figure in many textbooks. Does this matter, or is an interest in simulation worldviews just a historical curiosity?.