Print traces and dumps were the only tools had for a long time, and quite frankly there are a lot of areas in programming where this is still the case (lots of embedded programming, for instance, and it's not likely you'll get a print from that either).

Tools are nice, this isn't an old-man shaking his fist at the wind moment. It's more important to note that not all tools are software. Some tools are mental-based. We have to force ourselves to build those tools over time.