I think part of that perception may come from the kinds of companies you have dealt with. There are many companies where the "IT" side of the company is consid

I think part of that perception may come from the kinds of companies you have dealt with. There are many companies where the "IT" side of the company is considered to be mostly superfluous. In fact, most programmers work for these kinds of companies. In my experience, there is still very little training. At best you'll get a 2 day "Scrum Master" course, or a couple of days to go to a conference here or there (which is sadly often seen in the same light that sales people view a sales junket). Even in big insurance companies, etc people don't stick around as employees for long. Of course these companies are not the ones paying double for good programmers.