Oh, this topic is near and dear to my heart. I've seen resistance to change even when it would benefit others, all my life. I've resisted change myself at times, even when it would benefit me. But never have I seen change as adamantly resisted as I have here. I've come to the conclusion that there are various strong forces that have a very vested interest in maintaining the status quo. However, even so I've been surprised to see the beginnings of interest in bringing about change. Its small and limited, but this sort of change hasn't happened here in decades.
Steve, you ended your article by saying that inspiring "... others to join in and invest for the future is a skill". I admit that isn't a skill I have. I sure as heck would love to learn it.
Contrary to popular belief, I don't resist change. I resist change that hasn't been proven to actually be better than the current tools. In many cases, the only reason why someone is proposing a change is because they simply haven't invested any time to learn to use the current tools. They're also not going to invest the time to learn to use the new tools and so won't be able to support those either.