It's not exactly super hard and complicated to get things working on a microcontroller though. In fact, the first time I did it, I felt it was so much simpler than all this complicated web stuff.
It absolutely is! I love micro-controller development. It's you and the bare metal, not dozens of layers of abstraction that often feel like they're fighting you at every turn.
On the other hand, it's hard to impress with blinkenlights and basic motor driving.
I'm currently going through a phase of thinking on how I could apply functional programming theory and techniques to the next iteration of this embedded system...
