> I think the takeaway for me is that emacs is for people who get enjoyment out of building their own custom computing environment

For long time users, that's the whole point of Emacs.

> The example you describe is something I would rarely do

I used to do it at work all the time (not with Emacs, but with AutoHotKey). Find a long article I'd really like to read, but don't want to waste time at work. With a keystroke, I'd quickly send the email to me with the URL etc.