The conclusion of my Q is that I feel really behind regarding electronic technology.
I probably will stay at “through hole to surface mount” and SOIC until am master it.
But I must make an amusing comment.
So if I understand the correct technical progress toward future! 
In order to soldering the next generation electronic components I need:
1. Electron microscope
2. Soldering iron tip of 200 nm
3. Steady hand
Take care
UC, I am a hobbyist. I might have encountered what you are encountering. I think you may be caught where I was, so this may help encourage/energize you... that's the motive of me writing this reply anyhow...
Looking at the miniature SMDs on a board looks both overwhelming and intimidating. I am retirement age - so I don't have steady hands nor do I have good vision.
Two or three years back (there about) - approx 1-2 years into my EE as hobby venture, I had a board (ADA Fruit ADS1115) with a blown SMD and finally decided to deal with the intimidation I felt that held me back.
If you are intimidated by the apparent difficulty in dealing with tiny tiny SMDs, the best thing to do is really just to over-power it. Practice is probably the best tool to increase your confident and a success (even within many failures) is the best way to overcome that feeling of intimidation.
I use reading glasses normally. Basically the 2.00x reading glass = 2x magnifying glass. I also have a 10x loupe magnifying glass. I watched a few of the SMD soldering videos and went to work. Using an old StarTec phone, I removed any of those SMDs chips and other SMD components I can reach. I resoldered them back. I know a lot of them I probably fried (overheated). Some even had their legs melted away. I didn't care, because I was just practicing the soldering/desoldering. After about 5-10 hours of practice (over many days), I can solder on one quick enough that it probably didn't overheat, and the legs didn't self-destruct. With that, I did my real solder repair work. (I set good speed as less than 1-second continuous contact between soldering tip and IC's leg. The actual soldering limit is typically in the component's datasheet.)
To overcome my own sense of feeling intimidated, I actually did my first repair with the TSSOP (0.65mm pitch, that's about 9x smaller than SOIC 16's 6mm pitch). I did both a TSSOP and an SOT23-8 (also 0.65 pitch) one after the other. I told myself if I did this one right and even with just one out of two works, other chips (with much larger pitch) would be cake walks. Both actually worked - it was luck for sure that both worked my first repair job, but practice certainly helped.
I am no expert. The repair worked but it looked far less than perfect. Following that pair of repair work, I feel I can do it. The next few times with similar size were at perhaps 75% success rate, but that helpless/hopeless feeling of "this is damn near impossible" is gone. I am confident I may not get it right the first time, but I will.
Go to it, use something cheap or worthless as practice (so there is no financial reason to hold back).
My equipment list:
- my vision is aided by a 2.00x reading glass.
- I used a 10x loupe for inspection of work done. (Now I also use a 40x as well).
- I used a 1mm width chisel head soldering tip.
- 1mm multi-core solder-wire
- Cheapo tweezer (hair removal tweezer from a "personal grooming kit" sold with finger nail clip for $1)
- A screw driver (to press down on the IC to hold it in place)
That was enough to get me to do my first two real work the first go. Give it a try. Just brush aside the reservation and hit it. Hitting it is the best way to wipe away the "this is freaking impossible" feeling.
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