I seriously doubt the number of instant millionaires is significant enough to impact the total numbers. 25% of programmers did not become rich enough to retire, and if so, I'm doing everything wrong.
It was always a matter of luck. If there were ways to predict such a lottery ahead of time, I think the industry would look quite different today.
As with flash floods of rivers, the coverage of such events was complex. It probably affected some companies a lot more than others.
Anecdotally, it used to be an aphorism at Microsoft that if you hadn't made your first million by 30 (or was it 25?) you were doing something wrong. Certainly the demographics at Microsoft showed several clear waves of early retirements from stock booms and bonuses, and for a ~forty year old company the median age is still staggeringly young today, even accounting for industry ageism.
If it wasn't clear, I don't expect those flash floods to happen again, they definitely seem to have been flukes of luck. But I think it shouldn't be ignored that it had an impact on the industry demographics.
