To me, your basic "high level programming" job (which usually includes the JS folks with their modern stacks) typically is all about translating business / appl

To me, your basic "high level programming" job (which usually includes the JS folks with their modern stacks) typically is all about translating business / application requirements into logic that computers can understand and interfaces that people can use. Certainly, as a higher level programmer, I do think it is great to know as much lower level concepts as possible (it helps your higher level programming skills). But the truth is, business simply wants to Get Shit Done Fast. And having frameworks or libraries do a lot of the work for you saves a lot of time. Hence the huge amount of usage of "glorified plumbing" in the field. (I don't think even C++ folks are immune to the "glorified plumbing" effect, eg: they have Boost, Poco, QT, etc.) As far as I know, the separation between this side of programming and the more mathematical / inner detail "engineering" oriented side has always existed. (When I went to college, the "higher programming" pathway also had business courses, where the "engineering" side concentrated more on algorithms and the like. Now, even the business programmer folks did take one course in C++ back then...)