I still would have built it today, what I was unsure of was whether I would have learned GLSL.
The models have been sub-par at writing shaders until recently. Without the friction of needing to learn the language itself to build it, I don't know if I would have.
The most fun I have today is trying to innovate new interesting techniques, which I wouldn't be able to do with the models alone.
I wonder what makes you unsure that you would have not bothered in building it today? or what would you do different with todays knowledge?