I'm not entirely sure what you mean. It seems there are hundreds, if not thousands of engines, if you peruse a list like the CCRL. The vast majority of them seem to be individuals, and most of them are free programs, so I'm guessing most of them are programming chess as a hobby. There are a few commercial programs on the list, some of them continuations of the venerable software from the 90s like Fritz, Shredder, etc. But mostly I think chess programming is likely not profitable unless you're employed by one of those few software programs still being sold commercially.

I do see it as an exciting time in programming, with the rise of neural net programming and new approaches to AI as we're seeing in products like the Senserobot and the TCA II. And of course with the thousands of engines still being developed, tweaked, studied, and refined, there seems to be no shortage of interest in the field, and not an end, like the OP suggested. And there are even projects like the Phoenix computers and the CB-Emu p,roject which allow folks to enjoy the programs of old.

And when I mentioned the lack of Chinese and Indian chess programmers, I was referring to the engines, as when I checked out the top 50 or so, the vast majority of the programmers were US, German, French, Swedish, Italian, etc. In other words, the places we're accustomed to seeing.