Attention has always been paid on this, from long time users at least.
Back in the ST days, all utilities i used were PD/SW. And like, 1/4 of the games too i'd say.
Especially thanks to monthly cover disks (french ST Mag for me, mainly), PD libraries, and of course disk swapping.
Also some resources list those:
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https://sites.google.com/site/stessential/-
http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_at ... 9_S_G.htmlNow if you suggest some presentation of valuable PD/SW softs and games should be done, especially for newcomers (but also for hidden good stuff that even long time users would have missed).
That would be a nice idea.

Maybe all ST user and fans should vote on Atarimania about their favorite software, this could help pointing people to good stuff?