Bah!
Blind alley, Nigel11? Only if your vision of the transistor is as a switch to be used in a computer.
Bipolar transistors, and furthermore *Germanium* bipolar transistors are used to this day in high-quality audio amplifiers because they can handle large current excursions without venting Magic Smoke.
Come to that, there is a burgeoning market in valve (vacuum tube) amps by guitarists who can overdrive the output stages by turning the knobs to 11 to get "appealing" distortion with no fear of cooking off the amplification components - the electron beams just miss the anode if you make 'em bend too far or push 'em back too hard.
Your world may begin and end with the computer, but for all the talk of "point, click and ship" the world's electronic needs are a bit more involved if it's all going to work.
Next up: Why dismantling the US Post Office won't be a Good Thing, because even though you shop online using an iPhone the cheapest way to get what you bought in your living room from the warehouse in Goshnoze, Ware to your front door is ... the US Post Office. (Insert appropriate equivalents for UK etc).
Now, back to my Raspberry Pi for some quality time with subminiature FETs.