But physical manufacturing outside of freestanding factories has never been a significant part of an industrial economy. It more or less amounts to "arts and crafts".

This changed with computers. You could never start a car factory in a garage, but there was a golden age where you could start a high-tech electronics company like HP or Apple.

Today you can start a web-based or software company on a laptop in a coffee shop or library. This is a big deal, let's not kill it.

Software patents have to go away or we're going to be stuck in the industrial age, which would be bad because we've already sold off most of our factories.

s/machine shops/nanoassemblers/ then, if you like; software still has a much smaller barrier to entry. And for the record, I don't necessarily believe in mechanical engineering patents either, but as a software professional I primarily care about abolishing software patents, because they hurt me personally.