It's definitely infectious, but I don't think it's the dieselness that is infectious.
My first exposure to slow power was in the engine room of a paddle-wheel riverboat (I wish I could remember which one - it's probalby still plying the big muddy). I was about 10 years old, and we were visiting my uncle in Baton Rouge. We drove down to New Orleans for a day, and rode this boat on a day cruise for a few hours. I got bored with adult talk and watching the riverbanks go by, so started exploring. This is decades before 9/11 so the sane and sensible people who kept the boat running had all the doors, portholes, ventilators, etc. they could find open. And, of course, they were thrilled with this tow-headed 10 year old kid who wandered in asking questions.
I got the grand tour...well, the gearhead grand tour anyway. Didn't see the pilot house and didn't much care to. It was obvious that the engine room was where it was at - everybody greasy was there, and there was plenty to look at. My father was an avid steam rail fan, so I'd seen some steam power already in my short life. I had not, however, seen an engine turning 20 RPM while delivering hundreds of horsepower making no more noise than a sleeping dog. Even as recip steam engines go, these were not an edgy design. I think they were double-acting compound, but I seem to recall slide valve gear, which means low temperatures. I also recall asking about pressure and getting an answer of something like 60 or 80 PSI.
The most vivid memory is looking at the crosshead block quietly sliding several feet to and fro on its oily bed plate, and watching the con rod big end swing slowly through one revolution, then another, then another with just the quiet hiss of the valve block opening at the top and bottom of the stroke, then looking out the open engine room door over the gunwales and seeing the mississippi tearing past at a good six or eight knots. It looked like it was going even faster because we were going upriver and the wind was blowing downriver...
I remember asking about wear - I knew that dirty oil was a problem, and here was bare metal running in an exposed oil bath. I was courteously answered that cleanliness and oil was all that was necessary - these engines were decades old, and had spent quite a bit of that immersed in the muck of a river bottom before they'd been raised and put into this new (steel) hull. If the wet mud of the river couldn't kill them, they'd surely run forever with good maintenance.
From that day on I've understood that small and fast can be light and efficient, but generally at the cost of fragility and complexity. Something engineered for decades of service, even with careful attention is going to have a very different set of parameters. It'll look like a CS lister, or one of these Tangyes...