Good question !
I have been having a lot of fun with home brewed rules and discovering what rules paved the way for the mordern war game.
There are lots of these fore fathers of tabletop wargaming out there for people to try, Phil Barker, Chris Peers , Bodley -Scott, Donald F. Featherstone, Iain Dickie, C.S.Grant, I know there a possibly some I have missed out, but it's great to have a go at these as you never know what it would lead to;
Would I have written my rules with out experiencing DBA/DBM? No
Would I have had such a fabulous game if it was not for Featherstone/Barker? No