I make this very same joke; I think a lot of it is that the bearded old man hermit in the rugged forests idea has a lot of precedence in fiction and expresses a bunch of concepts very succinctly. Not just the rejection of modern technology, but also the bitterness felt toward it, the distance to be sought from fellow humans and their artifice, the peace found in the new life, independence, and so on. There's also an appealing masculinity to it, for those of us of that persuasion.

One of these days I'll do it! I'll never open another JIRA ticket again!