It has to do with the Scope of the problem. And a totally different way of approach and solution.
All the "major" arguments about Cinderella Topics are because I have not got this "Scope" concept across yet, and people argue with me using "mainstream" logic.
(The fact that they are usually wrong in a mainstream context as well is neither here nor there).
Things just work differently in the Cinderella subset.
Different problems. Different goals. Different solutions.
In a way the Cinderella project is more difficult than the Mainstream problem.
There are a huge number of programs (possibly more than in the Mainframe world).
Most of the Cinderella world programs will work come D-Day.
Thus the problem children "hide" away amongst the good or semigood programs. You have to dig quite hard to find bugs.
Each site is different. Large expensive projects are out of the question.
In the last ten years software available to smaller users has expanded hyperbolically.
Many distributioon sources have sprung up. Bulletin Boards, CD Rom compendiums and now of course the Web.
In general Cinderellas are Users not Developers. They don't have the source. All they can change are parameters.
Traditional mainstream users have tended to stick to a standard set of utility systems and write their own source code.
Maybe that is the definitive real difference.
"Mainstream" is about changing code.
Cinderella is about changing parameters or leaving things alone.