That's just your wishful thinking. Here on HN I've seen both people that stayed up to date complain about discrimination and interviewers say that they expect older developers to bring more to the table - i.e. if one is a decent older developer they will be disadvantaged when competing with a decent younger developer which has learning potential.
Yeah, the issue as an older developer with age discrimination is not that you are entitled to some credit for years of experience when say, you haven't been using Java since college, but that you can't be hired on the same basis and salary as a new grad who has no experience either. Despite having demonstrated many times your ability to learn in the past.
It's easy to stereotype people who have unrealistic expectations based on entitlement because of their age, but past a certain point, a lot of employers will reject a older candidate even at the same price as a new one on the assumption that they can't learn any more.
Of course, if you are employable, you don't bang your head against the wall, you go and do something else. Like any kind of discrimination, if they were forced to accept you, it wouldn't make the culture palatable. It reduces your opportunities though.
